MULTIMEDIA

Multimedia

Multimedia

Introduction

Nielsen (2000) noted that multimedia provides more design options but also requires design discipline. He argued that ad hoc use of multimedia confuses users and makes it harder for them to understand information. For instance, unnecessary use of animation or video clips can distract users' attention, so the users may not be able to find the important information. Design guidance to avoid such pitfalls exists (ISO, 1998 and ISO, 2000); however, the guidelines have not been synthesized into a method or supported by tools. Furthermore, the effectiveness of such guidance in delivering usable and attractive interfaces has not been put to the test. This forms one of the motivations for the research we report in this paper. We aim to provide computer-based design guidance for multimedia designers (both novice and experienced) to carry out a formative evaluation of the effectiveness of the method and tool.

While there is some evidence that HCI guidelines are used in industrial applications (Bevan, 1997), the extent of direct use in the design process is open to debate (Gray and Salzman, 1998). Some suggest that design advice is effective once it is reasoned about as trade-offs, rather than being used directly as “cook book” knowledge (Carroll, 2000). HCI methods which have been integrated with software engineering processes and object-oriented design (Rosson and Carroll, 1995) may be a conduit for making guidelines easier to apply by providing a context for their application. However, methods without support tools have a poor track record of use (Van der Donckt, 1999) and even if users want to use the paper-based manuals, they may not be able to find relevant information (Nielsen, 1993).

Designing attractive and usable multimedia systems

The ISO 14915 standard defines a medium as different specific forms of presenting information to the human user, such as text, video, graphics, animation, audio; and multimedia as the combinations of static and/or dynamic media which can be interactively controlled and simultaneously presented in an application. Static media do not change over time whereas dynamic media do. In this paper we follow the ISO definition which emphasizes that media are a form of representation rather than a modality as a means of receiving information or interacting (Oviatt, 2003). Multimedia design has to address the problems inherent in the design of any user interface, viz. defining user requirements, tasks, dialogue design; however, there are three issues that concern multimedia specifically:

• Matching the media to the message, by selecting and integrating media so the user comprehends the information content effectively.

• Managing users' attention so key items in the content are noticed and understood, and the user follows the message thread across several media.

• Navigation and interaction so the user can access, play and interact with media in an engaging and predictable manner.

The design process starts with requirements and information analysis to establish the necessary content and communication goals of the application. Concurrently the domain and user characteristics are analysed to establish a profile of the user and the system ...