Multimedia Instructional Design

In my opinion the design phase is one of if not the most important parts of the design process. The design phase is the planning phase and is the most fun, because you can let your imagination run wild. Lee/Owens says that planning is the most important factor of a project and projects often founder because of failure to adequately plan.
Lee/Owens says that the outcome of this phase is the course design specification (CDS). CDS contains the following elements: 1) Schedule, 2) Project team, 3) Media specifications, 4) Lesson structure, and 5) Configuration control and review cycles.
The schedule outlines the dates of when current key events are supposed to take place. Project team is the group(s) of people working on the project. Their duties and responsibilities should be outlined. Media specifications includes the document types, presentation styles, text, grammar, graphics, fonts, themes, and editing symbols. Lesson structure describes the flow and structure of the lesson, the tests, and user control. Configuration control and review cycle describes how media is designed and managed and the process for conducting reviews.

Lee, W. W., & Owens, D. L. (2004). Multimedia-based instructional design: Computer-based training, web-based training, distance broadcast training, performance-based solutions. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.