Abstract
During the last decade, the computer have become more like a machine
for processing media. Now, all types of media can be integrated in the
computer, thus the computer can be regarded as a meta-medium. The
integration of different types of media into one document is called
multimedia. In this thesis I study how multimedia-presentations can be
structured and how this structure can be visualized.
Design of tools for constructing and presenting
multimedia-presentations are still at an experimental level, and have
not yet reached a stability. I present two tools, one for both
constructing and exploring multimedia-presentations, and another for
exploring multimedia-presentations. The tools have been designed as
part of a project called Lava Learning. The tools have been tested in
an educational setting, and I study how the structure and the
visualization of structure chosen works.
The tools that I have analyzed have a basic linear structure. Despite
of that, my investigations indicate that a tool for constructing and
exploring multimedia-presentations can support many kinds of meaningful
use. Such a tool can also be designed to support more than one
metaphor from traditional media.
Multimedia can have a quite complex structure. Different types of
media relates differently to time, and this can cause co-ordination
problems when they are integrated into one document. It can be
necessary to have more than one visualization of the structure,
because of this. By visualizing the structure at more than one level,
the user can gain deeper insight and get a better understanding of the
multimedia-presentation. It also makes navigation in the
multimedia-presentation easier.