Multimedia User Interface Design Alistair US Tcliffe
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17 Multimedia User Interface Design Alistlir sS tAliife CONTENTS 17.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................... 387 17.2 Definitions and Terminology ........................................................................................................................................... 388 17.3 Cognitive Background ..................................................................................................................................................... 389 17.3.1 Perception and Comprehension ........................................................................................................................... 389 17.3.2 Selective Attention ............................................................................................................................................... 389 17.3.3 Emotion and Arousal ........................................................................................................................................... 389 17.3.4 Learning and Memorization ................................................................................................................................ 390 17.4 Design Process ................................................................................................................................................................. 391 17.4.1 Users, Requirements, and Domains .................................................................................................................... 391 17.4.2 Information Architecture ..................................................................................................................................... 392 17.4.3 Media Selection and Combination ....................................................................................................................... 394 17.4.3.1 Media Selection .................................................................................................................................... 395 17.5 Media Design for User Engagement ................................................................................................................................ 395 17.5.1 Multimedia to Motivate and Persuade ................................................................................................................. 395 17.5.2 Media for Emotional Effects ............................................................................................................................... 397 17.5.3 Multimedia and Aesthetic Design ....................................................................................................................... 398 17.6 Interaction and Navigation ............................................................................................................................................... 399 17.6.1 Metaphors and Interaction Design ....................................................................................................................... 399 17.6.2 Navigation ............................................................................................................................................................400 17.6.3 Design for Attention ............................................................................................................................................ 401 17.6.3.1 Still Image Media ................................................................................................................................. 402 17.6.3.2 Moving Image Media ............................................................................................................................ 402 17.6.3.3 Linguistic Media (Text and Speech) ..................................................................................................... 402 17.7 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................................... 403 References ................................................................................................................................................................................. 403 17.1 INTRODUCTION 2005; Faraday and Sutcliffe 1996, 1997, 1998; Sutcliffe and Faraday 1994). A more detailed description is given The distinguishing characteristics of multimedia are infor- in Sutcliffe (2003). The time-to-market pressure gives lit- mation-intensive applications that have a complex design tle incentive for systematic, principled design, so at first space for presenting information to people. Design of multi- reading, a systematic approach may seem to be counter to media interfaces currently leaves a lot to be desired. As with the commercial drivers of development. However, I would many technologies, it is the fascination with new devices, argue that if multimedia design does not adopt a usability functions, and forms of interaction that has motivated design engineering approach, it will fail to deliver effective and rather than ease of use, or even utility of practical applica- usable products. tions. Poor usability limits the effectiveness of multimedia Traditional multimedia markets have been in education products, which might look good but do not deliver effective and training, although dialogue in many systems has been use (Scaife et al. 1997). With the growth of the web, use of restricted to drill and quiz interaction, interactive simula- media has become a vital component of attractive and engag- tions and microworlds are more effective (Rogers and Scaife ing design. 1998). Multimedia has been used extensively in task-based This chapter describes a design process that starts applications in process control and safety-critical systems with an information analysis then progresses to deal with (Alty 1991; Hollan, Hutchins, and Weitzman 1984). With the issues of media selection and integration. The background advent of the Web 2.0 and beyond, interactive multimedia is to the method and its evolution with experience can be a continuing design challenge. found in several publications (Sutcliffe and De Angeli 387 388 The Human–Computer Interaction Handbook Design for multimedia user interfaces (UIs) expands • Message: The content of communication between a conventional definitions of usability (e.g., ISO 9241 Part 11: sender and receiver. ISO 1997) into five concerns as follows: • Medium (plural media): The means by which that content is delivered. Note that this is how the mes- 1. Operational usability: It is the conventional sense sage is represented rather than the technology for of usability that concerns design of graphical user storing or delivering a message. There is a distinc- interface (GUI) features such as menus, icons, meta- tion between perceived media and physical media phors, and navigation in hypermedia. such as CD-ROM and hard disk. 2. Information delivery: It is a prime concern for mul- • Modality: The sense by which a message is sent or timedia or any information-intensive application received by people or machines. This refers to the and raises issues of media selection, integration, and senses of vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. design for attention. 3. Learning: Training and education are both impor- A message is conveyed by a medium and received through tant markets for multimedia and hence learnability a modality. A modality is the sensory channel that we use to of the product and its content are key quality attri- send and receive messages to and from the world, essentially butes. However, design of educational technology is our senses. Two principal modalities are used in human– a complex subject in its own right, and multimedia computer communication as follows: is only one part of the design problem. 4. Utility: In some applications, this will be the func- 1. Vision: All information received through our eyes, tionality that supports the user’s task; in others, including text and image-based media information delivery and learning will represent the 2. Hearing: All information received through our ears, value perceived by the user. as sound, music, and speech 5. Engagement and attractiveness: The attractiveness of multimedia is now a key factor especially for In the future, as multimedia converges with virtual reality websites. Multimedia interfaces have to attract users (VR), we will use other modalities more frequently: haptic and deliver a stimulating user experience, as well as (sense of touch), kinaesthetic (sense of body posture and bal- being easy to use and learn. ance), gustation (taste), and olfaction (smell). These issues are dealt with in Chapters 19 and 29. Multimedia design involves several specialisms, which are Defining a medium is not simple because it depends on technical subjects in their own right. For instance, design of how it was captured in the first place, how it was designed, text is the science (or art) of calligraphy that has developed and how it has been stored. For example, photograph can be new fonts over many years; visualization design encompasses taken on film, developed, and then scanned into a computer the creation of images, either drawn or captured as photo- as a digitized image. The same image may have been cap- graphs. Design of moving images, cartoons, video, and film tured directly by a digital camera and sent to a computer as are further specializations, as are musical