Applying Model-View-Controller (MVC) in design and development of information systems: An example of smart assistive script breakdown in an e-Business application

Information systems are supporting professionals in all areas of e-Business. In this paper we concentrate on our experiences in the design and development of information systems for the use in film production processes. Professionals working in this area are neither computer experts, nor interested in spending much time for information systems. Consequently, to provide a useful, useable and enjoyable application the system must be extremely suited to the requirements and demands of those professionals. One of the most important tasks at the beginning of a film production is to break down the movie script into its elements and aspects, and create a solid estimate of production costs based on the resulting breakdown data. Several film production software applications provide interfaces to support this task. However, most attempts suffer from numerous usability deficiencies. As a result, many film producers still use script printouts and textmarkers to highlight script elements, and transfer the data manually into their film management software. This paper presents a novel approach for unobtrusive and efficient script breakdown using a new way of breaking down text into its relevant elements. We demonstrate how the implementation of this interface benefits from employing the Model-View-Controller (MVC) as underlying software design paradigm in terms of both software development confidence and user satisfaction.