Services
We only offer a design consultancy service based on the University of Sussex Consultancy model.
During our consultancy we follow a fairly generic workflow that maps onto most of our consultancy activities. Our first activity involves finding out what you need. We will meet you at your premises or ours to discuss your requirements. This may involve you describing your requirements by way of a ‘user scenario’ that outlines the desired functionality of your virtual exhibition, e.g. virtual tour (video, AVIs, QuickTime, etc.), virtual museum (virtual reality fly or walk through), virtual reconstruction (simple or complex 3D model), 3D enabled web site (some or all the previous technologies integrated with your website. We can write this scenario(s) together from both a user (your target audience) and technology perspective .
We will then map your requirements into a requirements specification, which you will help to refine. The requirements specification will outline the essential and desirable features for your virtual exhibition.
Once this is agreed, we will produce a design specification that will define the parameters and technology choice for your virtual exhibition. For example, if you require a virtual reconstruction we will define parameters such as size and quality of the 3D model, its intended use, e.g. for the Internet, or stand-alone visualisation on a PC. Do you need to reuse the 3D model for various applications, e.g. as part of a virtual museum.
Once we have agreed the design specification, and this may involve several iterations with you, the client, we can then begin to estimate the cost of your virtual exhibition. The cost will take into account several factors:
- We prefer to build a research and/or educational relationship that gives us added value by working with you. For example, consultancy services will be performed by academic, research or PhD candidates, and as such we are always look at the educational benefits or potential research value of a project that can offset costs.
- For example, exposer to a museums best practice in educational museum exhibitions may give us valuable knowledge enabling us to think of new research ideas or approaches.
- When working with educational or charitable clients, e.g. museums, schools, etc. we are aware such clients are cost sensitive. As such when using 'design applications' to create digital content licences for so called 'educational use' can often be used, which may reduce costs significantly. In such scenarios, we would seek to ensure 'digital content' or 'applications' created cannot be sold on or exploited for profit in a commercial sense.
- For example, developing a 3D model (using a 3D modelling package with an educational licence ) for use in an educational exhibition in a museum that does not charge entry to the exhibition may be ok—each case would need to be considered carefully to ensure legal use of third party software. On the other hand, charging visitors to engage with the exhibition (e.g. the 3D model) may constitute commercial use and require additional licence fees for the original creation of the 3D model.
- The University of Sussex Consultancy cost model is based on the University recovering costs for: staff working on the consultancy, nominal overheads, any direct costs (e.g. materials and software, etc.) and personal fees.
- Total cost of the project should take into account work done by the client and consultancy done by the University.
- For example, part of the work may be done by the client with their own facilities.
Once the design specification is signed off, we can start the implementation of your virtual exhibition. Implementation details will vary a lot depending on what your requirements were, 3D Model, 3D website, … however, you will need to be involved from the start. For many digital content creation (DCC) based projects we will need, for example, CAD drawings, digital photographs, access to artefacts for scanning, textual descriptions for public dissemination, and so on. This stage will involve the development of at least an initial prototype, perhaps a second prototype, and a final version, each stage being discussed with the client. As the final stage appears you will begin to see the interactivity that 3D gives you depending on your specified requirements.
The final part of our workflow involves testing, commissioning and any ongoing maintenance you may require. A crucial part of the workflow is of course keeping you in the loop at all times.
