Media and Modalities

The theme of this chapter is the means by which we interact. Multimedia will be considered as various forms in which information can be presented. This is linked to multimodality, which will be treated as communications channels between user and computer. Hypertext is reviewed as a different means of presenting information in a non-linear manner. Add different media to hypertext and we have hypermedia. Add three-dimensional images, sensory wraparound and gesture modalities and this produces virtual reality. All these technologies personify the technical push part of HCI which creates new means of interacting and, hence, the potential to achieve new ways of working with computers. However, technology is only part of the story. With new opportunities for interacting come new challenges in design. Technically innovative interfaces can still be bad designs unless principles and methods for usercentred design are applied. In this chapter the objective is to explain the basis for interactive technologies. This forms input to presentation design in Chapter 7.