Overview

animate! is a successful funding scheme for experimental animation and film. It is run by Finetake Productions on behalf of The Arts Council of England and Channel 4 television. This project was produced in collaboration with Timo Arnall and Adi Nachman.

Process

We conducted some initial research gathering business needs and directions through meetings with Finetake (the client) and explored an existing partnership with The Lux Centre. After initial research, we proposed a series of extensions to the site, changing the remit of the brief to include:

• A community structure
• A database to house a library of information on animation and those within the community
• An extension into interactive television
• An educational resource
• A channel for critical expression and journalism

We developed animation related questions to structure our user enquiries. Two rounds of user research were conducted. The first stage was to establish an understanding of the British animation community and which needs the animate! site might usefully serve. This involved:

• The distribution of 200 questionnaires among a cross section of the animation community
• A series of one to one interviews with relevant professionals, not just animators
• A series of phone interviews with key figures in the animation community

This material was used to define the second stage research which included

• In depth interviews
• User participatory design workshops
• Research into relevant, existing and foreseeable technologies
• Consultations with the client and The Arts Council of England
• Testing and architectural iterations

Once all the research had been collected and lo-fi user tests had been carried out, we delivered a document which included

• A competitive analysis
• A summary of the research and interviews
• A description of all needs and set of proposals for solutions
• Detailed proposed architecture
• Definition of community development for animate!
• Detailed instructions for designers and coders to build the site (wireframes, sitemaps, functional and technical specs, etc)
• A future thinking document covering ideas to be developed in the future

We are now working with Finetake to develop proposals to extend animate!s remit to include providing content for digital interactive Television. I am working with Timo Arnall in consultation with animate! to develop media partnerships through which it seeks to develop it's services.

Unfortunately we are not able to make the document publicly available, but the you can download the sitemap as a .pdf. We worked with Präliñé on the rebranding of animate! the new brand is a consistent and clean visual treatment for both web and print.