A great interface design is extremely difficult to build and is as much an art as it is science. User interface can often make the difference between user adoption and a failed system rollout. A well designed interface reduces and can even eliminate the need for training.
So what does make a great interface for a Media Asset Management application?
Deep search without clutter. Searching is one of the most important parts of any MAM, without search, a MAM is basically useless. But there are layers to search. Loads of options from "Contains" or "is" or "Does not contain" or "isn't" and so on. A lot of interfaces also use hard dates vs rolling dates, this can make a big difference in finding the right media. A clean interface with logical labeling of options is a must.
Video files that can be played back. It seems simple, but it's usually not; but that is what a good product does right? Makes the not simple things easy. Playing back video media is critical, and a good MAM takes into account variety of different file formats and either creates tools to play those formats back or tools to automatically transcode those files to a playable format. Either way, any search result of a video file should be playable regardless of file type or file location.
File location clarity. Lastly, quickly and easily understanding where a file exists is a huge function within a MAM. Know if media is immediately available, in a local archive or in the cloud is often the difference between usable and unusable. Making this easy to visually interpret is a critical element of a great MAM interface.
