DIGITAL MEDIA
ENGINEERING AND DESIGN:
PROPOSALS FOR THE INTERDISCIPLINARY
STUDY PROGRAM
Martin Šperka, Alena Kovárová
Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies
Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia
CONTENT
• INTRODUCTION
• DEFINITIONS OF DIGITAL MEDIA DESIGN
• QUESTIONNAIRES
• EVALUATIONS
• CONCLUSIONS
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
MOTIVATION
Developing new products containing digital media
interfaces and systems:
1. Integrating interactive media
text, image, animation, video, sound, virtual or enhanced
reality such as computer network applications, interactive CD/DVD
ROM, mobile devices, information kiosks and objects
2. Requires specific knowledge and skills
in electronic engineering
information technology and design.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
INTRODUCTION 1/2
Companies
There are many companies where engineers and designers work
together, but in many there are just engineers or designers.
The need to find a common language for communication and the
knowledge of fundamentals in other field is very valuable.
Education
In many countries exist schools providing a combined education in IT and
design. In Slovakia there exists no such school.
Goal
The goal of the project is to explore the effective use of existing
facilities, resources, expertise, competences as well as existing
subjects within one university - STU in Bratislava.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
INTRODUCTION 2/2
The main idea:
FIIT could provide a major IT oriented program with a minor in design
and vice versa, FA the bachelor in design with minor in digital media
design
Graduates of this type of study program should cover the lack of experts
in our market area.
Problems:
Existing subjects should be modified to meet existing knowledge for
both groups of students.
Traditional border between world of science and engineering on one side
and the art and design on the other.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
The main idea
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
DEFINITIONS OF
DIGITAL MEDIA DESIGN 1/2
Digital media belongs to a group together with
multimedia, intermedia, cross-media, new media and
interactive media.
Design is understood differently.
one can tell that web-design is art emphasizing creativity and
attraction.
others define it as an engineering discipline, where visual-design
rules are standardized, which are necessary to learn and
respect.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
DEFINITIONS OF
DIGITAL MEDIA DESIGN 2/2
Another project
International Socrates Erasmus project Joint Degree in Media
Development Engineering where the goal is to define a
common body of knowledge and an international study program.
Our faculty is among universities from Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
Poland, Slovakia and Spain.
Same field – different groups
All of these definitions certify the fact that there exist different groups
of people working in the same field. Each group has its own
vocabulary and when they meet, they don’t understand each
other.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 1/8
To answer these and other important questions,
we prepared 3 types of special questionnaires.
1. Companies associated with software, hardware and digital media
development
2. Students of FIIT STU
3. Students of FA STU (Institute of Design)
We asked also students of design at the Academy of Fine Arts and
Design (AFAD) students.
Questionnaires should help devise a student profile and create a
suitable curriculum of the current studying program
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 2/8
Companies
To find out what kinds of profession/knowledge they would
require from their employees provided that they would be
graduates of Digital Media Design program.
Students FIIT STU
To find out in which of the FA existing courses these students
would be interested, if they had the chance to make the choice.
Students FA STU
To find out in which of the FIIT existing courses these students
would be interested, if they had the chance to make the choice.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 3/8
Companies
Does your institution/company develop/design …
1. both software and user interfaces?
2. contract websites?
3. websites on its own?
4. interactive CD/DVD ROM-s (catalogues, text books, games...)?
5. product devices that require creation of digital interface…?
1.-5. a) By programmers (experts in informatics)
1.-5. b) Only by graphic designers or artists.
1.-5. c) Programmers collaborating with graphic designers or artists.
1.-5. d) Others (please specify).
6. In the design process of presented products….
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 4/8
Companies
7. Do you think that creating a study program where
curriculum is focused on
– Informatics courses - basics of programming, Internet
technologies, multimedia technologies, ...
– Esthetics and design courses - basics of audiovisual
communication, basics of design methodology and tools for
creation, image processing, animation, video, audio ...
– Business/law courses - management and marketing of
electronic content, intellectual property, copyrights, ...
is needed and useful in Slovakia?
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 5/8
Students of FIIT STU
1. If you work in a company, do you take part in the creation of
human-computer interface design?
Such as interfaces for programs, for cell phones, for information kiosks,
CDs, DVDs, presentation etc.
2. If you work in a company, do you take part in web-pages
design?
3. If there would be such study program at FIIT that would extend your
knowledge and skills about design of DM, would you join this
program?
4. Which of the following courses (from FA) would you prefer to
have in this study program?
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 6/8
Students of FIIT STU
The list of courses (provided by FA):
History of Fine Arts I, II
Design History,
Design Basics I and II
Ergonomics
Color
Fonts
Drawing I
Drawing Design
Graphic Design
Visual Communication Design
Graphic Presentation
Photography
Photographic Design
Working with Camcorder
Video Production
Computer Aided Design,
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 7/8
Students of FA STU
1. If you work in a company, do you take part in creation of
human-computer interface design?
Such as interfaces for programs, for cell phones, for information kiosks,
CDs, DVDs, presentations etc.
2. If you work in a company, do you take part in web-pages design?
3. If you work in a company, do you take part in the creation of
computer games?
4. If you extended your knowledge within your study at AFAD getting
informatics knowledge and skills, which are connected to interactive
DM design, web-design, and games, which of the following FIIT
courses would you choose from a list of subjects?
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
QUESTIONNAIRES 8/8
Students of FA STU
The list of subjects (provided by FIIT STU):
– Procedural Programming
– Object Oriented Programming
– Principles of Information
Systems
– Computer Networks
– Operating Systems,
– Database Systems
– Human-Computer Interaction
– Development in Java 2
Platform
– Artificial Intelligence
– Computer Graphics
– Multimedia Systems
– Principles of WebEngineering
– Internet Security.
Other Subjects (not all now provided):
Web-design, Markup and Scripting Languages for Internet (HTML,
JavaScript, PHP), Information Searching, Data Mining, Semantic Web,
XML, Web3D – Virtual Reality
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
EVALUATION 1/8
Companies
The majority of data from the companies was obtained from FIIT
students working in different companies as we did not find any
effective way how to have them obtained directly from company
leaders. We got 119 questionnaires.
The following chart shows the percentage of every positive answer in
each group of questions.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
EVALUATION 2/8
Companies
100%
90%
0,80
80%
0,66
70%
0,64
0,63
0,55 0,53
60%
0,49
0,45
50%
0,39 0,42
0,37
40%
0,42
0,42
0,25
30%
20%
10%
0,11
0,05
0,04
0%
1a
1b
2a
2b
2c
3a
3b
3c
4a
4b
4c
5a
5b
6a
6b
6c
7
by programmers by designers by collaboration other type of answer
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
EVALUATION 2/8
Companies
FIIT STU students work usually in companies where programmers
are needed, art designers wouldn’t be able to do this work on
their own (see the low percentage of 2b, 3b and 4b).
An interesting result is that about ½ of these students work in
companies where collaboration with graphic designers or artists
would be effective.
Finally, the majority of respondents (80%) thought that creating a
new study program where curriculum is focused on informatics,
esthetic, design and business/legal courses is needed and useful
in Slovakia.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
EVALUATION 3/8
Students of FIIT STU
3rd year bachelor students of the Human Computer
Interaction course.
We had 193 responders. The percentages of positive answers on 4
questions were web-page design
1.
2.
3.
4.
71% Do you work in a company… HCI design?
44% Do you work in a company… web-page design?
83% Would you join DM study program?
The following chart shows their preferences on different FA
courses related to DM design.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
y
or
y
of
F
H
is
t
or
A
rt
of I, I
I
D
es
ig
n
in
e
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
0,09
Fo
nt
D
ra
C
w
ol
in
or
g
Vi
D
su
Er esi
al
go gn
C
no
om
m
m
ic
un
D
s
r
Ph ica aw
in
ti
ot
g
og on
I
D
G
ra
ra
ph esi
ph
g
i
ic c D n
Pr
es
e
ig
V
W
s
or ide en n
t
ki
ng o P atio
r
C
om wi odu n
pu th c cti
o
a
te
r A mc n
o
id
ed r de
D r
Ph es
ig
ot
G
og n
ra
ph r ap
D
es ic D hy
ig
es
n
Ba ign
si
cs
I,
II
H
is
t
EVALUATION 4/8
Students of FIIT STU
0,56 0,59 0,59 0,60
0,33 0,34
0,40 0,41
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
0,66 0,67
0,71 0,74
0,46 0,48
0,13
10%
0%
ICETA
2007
EVALUATION 4/8
Students of FIIT STU
It is obvious that students really do not care about history.
Less than a half would like to know more about things like font,
color, drawing staff, ergonomics and visual communication design.
More than a half of responders, but less than ¾, was interested in
the rest of the courses.
The most attractive courses are Design Basics and Graphics
Design, which show the lack of information from this area in our
educational process.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
EVALUATION 5/8
Students of FA STU
Students from Institute of Design
We had 36 responders. The percentages of positive answers on 4
questions were web-page design
1. 33% Do you work in a company… web-page design?
2. 6% Do you work in a company… computer games?
3. 64% Would you join DM study program?
4. The following chart shows their preferences on different FIIT
and other courses related to DM design.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
bj
ec
t
O
ri e
nt
ed
M
Pr
ar
P
oc
D
ku
ro
ev
ed
p
gr
el
an
u
am
o
r
a
pm
d
lP
m
S
in
en
cr
ro
g
ip
g
t
i
ra
ti n
n
m
Ja
g
m
La
va
in
ng
g
2
ua
pl
a
ge
tfo
s
rm
Pr
f
or
D
in
a
In
ta
ci
te
pl
Pr
ba
e
rn
in
se
s
et
c
of
In
ip
S
fo
le
W
y
st
s
rm
eb
em
of
at
E
In
io
s
ng
fo
n
in
rm
S
ee
ea
at
ri n
rc
io
hi
n
g
ng
S
ys
,D
te
at
m
a
s
M
M
ul
i
n
tim
in
g,
ed
…
ia
O
pe
S
ys
ra
te
tio
m
n
C
s
S
om
ys
pu
te
m
te
s
rN
Ar
ti f
e
ic
tw
ia
or
lI
ks
nt
Se
H
e
um
ll ig
cu
en
rit
an
y
ce
-C
o
n
om
In
pu
te
W
rn
te
eb
et
rI
3D
C
n
om
t
e
–
ra
pu
vi
ct
rtu
te
io
rG
n
al
re
ra
al
ph
ity
ic
on
s
In
te
rn
W
et
eb
-d
es
ig
n
O
EVALUATION 6/8
Students of FA STU
100%
10%
0,94
90%
80%
0,72
60%
0,50
50%
40%
30%
20%
0,06
0,11
0,14 0,17
0,22 0,25
0,28 0,31
0,33 0,36
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
0,78
70%
0,53 0,56
0,39
0%
ICETA
2007
CONCLUSIONS 1/2
It is reasonable and necessary to create a new study
program on Digital Media Design.
– As the companies would often find it effective to have somebody
understanding both the programming and the art design.
– FIIT STU students like to know most about Design Basics and
Graphics Design
– FA and AFAD students about Web-design and Web3D and HumanComputer Interaction or Computer Graphics
We need more data from companies, in order to estimate needs of the
industry.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007
CONCLUSIONS 2/2
This work is partially supported by the Slovak Cultural and
Education Agency (KEGA) grant 3/3206/5 Interdisciplinary
Study Program: Design of Interactive Digital Media.
Special thanks to professor Lubomir Hornik from the
Institute of Design at the FA STU, who helped us with the
questionaries at the FA STU
and Mgr. Olga Zemanovicova, PhD student at the FIIT STU
for the helping us with the questionaries at the AFAD.
Digital Media Engineering and Design
Šperka, Kovárová: FIIT STU, Bratislava
ICETA
2007