Portuguese animation platform: digital platform development for the animation sector

• Autor(a) principal: Kikot, Tatiana
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/15099
• topic: Animação; Plataformas digitais; Design de comunicação; Design de interação; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Outras Ciências Sociais

Today, Portuguese Animation has proved to be an important part of national cultural heritage. The medium received more than 200 awards and honorable mentions in the most prestigious festivals. Portuguese Animation has a great potential in becoming an industry that can provide not only economic benefits, but also become a medium known by everyone locally and be acknowledged internationally. One of the actual problems is the absence of specific media able to give visibility to the people working in this area. In order to fill this gap, the development of a new digital platform, still missing, has been suggested to the author to resolve the real problem. Connecting a problem with Communication Design brought out the research question: “Can digital platform contribute to knowledge sharing for the students and professionals in the Animation sector, while enhancing engagement?” To answer the research the concept of “the practice-based approach” was used, where the development of a design project is not the objective, but is the integral part of the process, and techniques such as: literature review, case studies, and usability testing with in-person observations. In the end the functional prototype was developed to prove the hypothesis. Portuguese Animation Platform is a digital platform designed to be a repository for the artworks of students and professionals in the Animation sector. This platform allows rapid and efficient communication and knowledge sharing for the users. For the research the characteristics of target public was studied, the User Interface (UI) and the User Experience (UX) aspects through the usability testing. The gathered data outcome enabled the identification of some issues and revealed what necessary improvements had to be made. All the participants expressed the excitement and strongly believe it can provide them a better experience. So the research question was positively answered and proved the hypothesis, suggesting that digital platform can contribute to knowledge sharing while enhancing engagement. This research and its practical outcome might contribute to a more sustainable growth of the Animation sector.