Four-Dimensional Writing: Creating Content for Interactive Media  

The medium is an integral part of the message when writing for interactive delivery systems. Interactive media requires attention to details on several dimensions for communication of the content. Writers must focus not only on words and meaning, but also on how the content is presented. We can look to other disciplines for models of how they document the translation of ideas into reality. The detailed design document or storyboard is the essential tool for describing multimedia content in all four dimensions.

Wirth, Frances. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Multimedia>Interaction Design>Writing

From Project Manager To Producer: A Guide to Creating Multimedia Deliverables  

As technical communicators tackle multimedia projects, they realize the importance of using a process that can handle the dynamics of multimedia. This paper presents a multimedia development process that was developed and implemented by a team of technical communicators at IBM. It incorporates the basic elements of a standard information development process, and helps guide a team through elements introduced by new media, such as video production and deliverable distribution.

Anderson, Amy. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Multimedia>Video

Frozen Memories: Unthawing Scott of the Antarctic in Cultural Memory    

This article explores the staging of memory and death and the connotative differences within still photographs and film. It examines the tenses that can be inferred in reading photographs and film through examples drawn from representations of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13 and Captain Scott's journey to the South Pole taken by Herbert Ponting, and in the 1948 film _Scott of the Antarctic_.

Barwell, Claire. Visual Communication (2007). Articles>Multimedia>Visual Rhetoric

Fundamentals of Digital Video Production  

This paper discusses tips and techniques that you may want to use in your multimedia tasks. Initially, it discusses the technical aspects of the skill and then discusses key areas of the process. Last, it concludes with a brief discussion of resources.

Lippincott, Richard J. STC Proceedings (2004). Design>Multimedia>Video

Games, Information Design, and New Technologies for Technical Communicators  

Developments in communication technologies such as video scriptwriting and interactive multimedia require that technical communicators develop the skills and literacies necessary for adapting to the demands of designing information for media other than print. This paper presents a semiotic theory and model of multimedia discourse which will help technical communicators conceptualize and produce texts in new media. The model operates on the premise that communication practices can be considered as language games. The model focuses on the rhetorical and semiotic features of multimedia language games, and how to manipulate them.

Heba, Gary M. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Information Design>Multimedia>Games

Generate Flash Movies on the Fly with PHP

Rich Internet Applications is the new buzz-phrase for Web 2.0, and a key component of the substance behind Web 2.0 is Adobe Flash. Learn how to integrate Flash movies into your application and generate Flash movies dynamically using the Ming library.

Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash

GetSmart: Interface Design and Production Meet Editorial on a New CD-ROM Magazine

The technology of magazine production is well established. Editors have access to high-resolution print screens, and can use a wide variety of fonts, layout designs and graphics to create attractive and readable pages. Readers are used to seeing a lot of information on a single page - some in body text, some in sidebars or callouts. On screen, by contrast, the resolution is relatively low - 72 dpi as opposed to 2400 dpi. Readers are not yet accustomed to reading directly from the screen, and an overly cluttered screen or one with fonts which are too small can quickly become unreadable.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (1996). Design>Multimedia>CD ROM>Typography

Getting to Know Mic

For a presenter, a high-quality microphone, combined with the right sound system, will give your voice a rich sound that can be heard throughout a room. Here are some things to consider if you want to add a microphone to the company conference room or your presentation traveling kit. The basics A microphone is essentially an energy converter that takes in sound waves and converts them into electrical energy. Two main types of microphones are available: condenser and dynamic. A condenser mic uses a power supply to provide a charge that works with a thin diaphragm inside the unit to create a signal. A dynamic mic creates a signal when the sound pressure moves a coil or ribbon across a magnet. Because they usually produce a richer sound, condenser mics are the more popular of the two; however, they require batteries or a power supply and are more expensive and more fragile than dynamic models. Dynamic mics are usually considered less accurate in sound quality, but they are generally more rugged and can withstand varying temperatures, humidity levels and a lot of abuse. These qualities make dynamic mics ideal for use outdoors or on the road.

Hill, Julie. Presentations (2002). Articles>Presentations>Multimedia>Audio

Graphical Design in TCO: Video and Animation  

This report is intended to give an overview of graphical design in the technical communication field as it pertains to the areas of video and animation. The purpose of this report is to a) establish core knowledge areas, b) provide information to both students and professionals in TCO, c) demonstrate excellence in TCO at Mercer University, and d) help students decide on what internships and jobs they wish to pursue. This report includes a summary and background of the video and animation field, the methods by which the information was obtained, an organized presentation of the collected information, and a series of recommendations for those going into this field.

Davis, Marjorie T. and William H. Harris II. Mercer University (2002). Careers>Multimedia>Graphic Design

Graphics, Images, and Multimedia  

Graphics are used on many, if not most, Web pages. When used appropriately, graphics can facilitate learning. An important image to show on most pages of a site is the organization's logo. When used appropriately, images, animation, video, and audio can add tremendous value to a Web site. When animation is used appropriately, it is a good idea to introduce the animation before it begins.

Usability.gov (2006). Design>Web Design>Multimedia

Guidelines for Designing Usable DVD Menus  

DVD menus often suffer from serious usability problems, which has a negative impact on the user experience. The reason for this is that there is a lack of design standards. In this paper we describe the development of user interface guidelines for DVD menus and present the final guidelines. In order to obtain usable and applicable guidelines we went through three phases, which included among other usability-engineering methods an expert walkthrough, a ua prototype, and validating and improving the guidelines.

Költringer, Thomas, Martin Tomitsch, Karin Kappel and Thomas Grechenig. University of Vienna (2006). Design>User Interface>Multimedia>DVD

Guidelines for Multimedia on the Web

Multimedia is gaining popularity on the Web with several technologies to support use of animation, video, and audio to supplement the traditional media of text and images. These new media provide more design options but also require design discipline. Unconstrained use of multimedia results in user interfaces that confuse users and make it harder for them to understand the information. Not every webpage needs to bombard the user with the equivalent of Times Square in impressions and movement.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1995). Design>Multimedia>Web Design

Guidelines for Producing a CD-ROM Interface  

If your company wants to reduce costs compared to a hard copy version and increase convenience, for the customer, it should consider producing a CD-ROM or selecting a CD-ROM vendor. But before proceeding with the product, designers or developers must consider three factors: the data, the user’s tasks, and the CD-ROM interface. Without this preliminary analysis, your company may produce a CD-ROM with data that is difficult for the user to access.

Feinberg, Susan G. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Multimedia>CD ROM

Harry Miller on Multimedia Documentation

Miller, a technical editor at Microsoft interested in multimedia documentation, talks about why multimedia documentation is a growing trend and how writers can get started. He discusses Microsoft's Channel 9 and the human element with instructional screen demos.

Miller, Harry and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Documentation>Multimedia

How Genre Choices Effect Learning in a Digital Environment    

Makes the argument that research into the impact of media on learning often misses the impact of genre choices on learning. The article presents a series of studies that imply that genre choices are more important than media choices.

Hailey, Christine E. and David E. Hailey. Journal of Engineering Educators (2003). Academic>Education>Multimedia>Bandwidth

How to Change Interlaced Video Into Progressive Video

CGM DVE Vol. 3+ contains a tool which changes interlaced video into progressive video, making your footage look more like 35mm film.

Mac Design Magazine (2005). Design>Multimedia>Video

How Would You Like to Have 150,000 Space Shuttle Photos of the Earth at Your Fingertips?  

Explore the Earth on laser videodisc. All the astronaut photographs of the Earth taken on the first 57 missions of the Space Shuttle are now available on two laser videodiscs. Disc 2 also contains selected photos from the earlier NASA missions— Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. With the accompanying data records and software like the program we will demonstrate, you can choose global views of environmental change, graphic illustrations of scientific processes, or simply dramatic scenes to help your manuals communicate.

McKay, Mary Fae, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and Kimberly J. Willis. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Multimedia>Scientific Communication

HTML+TIME Transitions in Internet Explorer 6

The inline transitions that Internet Explorer 6 supports are based on the latest SMIL 2.0 specification. In the HTML+TIME world, they are implemented with the use of a t:transitionfilter element. The implementation is a bit early and the browser is in beta so things can always change. But this introductory set of transitions will add a bit more punch to the HTML+TIME framework.

Kennedy, Tim. Streaming Media World (2001). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>SMIL

Humanising Technology: the Studio Lab and Innovation

The central thesis of the report is that in the emerging digitally networked society, the creative arts and cultural institutions are mutating by forming a constellation of productive relationships with the science and technology research system, industry, humanistic and social science scholarship, and with emerging new structures of civil society. This apparently rising density of communication suggests the need to rethink some aspects of the relationship between cultural support policy, innovation and research policy, and the still nascent but interconnected set of concerns about the requirements for widespread creative participation in a 'techno-sphere' increasingly shaped by fast-changing digital media technologies.

Century, Michael. AHDS Performing Arts (2006). Articles>Collaboration>Multimedia

Hypermedia, Multimedia, and Reader Cognition: An Empirical Study    

In this article, we present the results of five tests done in a two-year project examining usability and instructional capabilities of modules developed in hypermedia and multimedia formats. Based on the results of these tests, we reinforce arguments that digitized media may be preferred by learners over traditional media and that learners tend to prefer a graphical user interface metaphor that is personally meaningful over the page metaphor typically used in computer based training. We also reinforce the argument that multimedia does no harm when used to replace more traditional approaches to instruction. On the other hand, we have determined that in some cases hypermedia and hypertext may be counterproductive as instructional media. In brief, we have determined that within the context of this study a majority of students have more difficulty learning in a hypermedia/hypertext environment than in an otherwise identical linear digital environment. In fact, in this study only the very best students were able

Hailey, David E. and Christine E. Hailey. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Education>Multimedia

An iDVD Slide Show

Hardware is easy to talk about, test, evaluate, review and sell. Software takes a little more study. Which is why we remain one of the very few imaging publications to review software in any depth. Most people find software is a solid that must be chewed to derive any nutritional benefits. And so they chew and chew and chew. But, no matter how much they chew, the stuff is still pretty hard to swallow.

Electric Escape (2003). Articles>Presentations>Multimedia>DVD

iMovie Tutorial: Capturing Video

This is one in a series which will take you through the act of capturing, editing, and exporting a video using Apple iMovie.

Iowa State University (2002). Design>Multimedia>Editing>Video

Impact of Multimedia on Online Documentation  

Multimedia is commonplace in entertainment and the Internet is proliferating the use of multimedia in electronic materials. Online documentation has traditionally been composed of text and some graphics. The proliferation of Intranets and online documentation is pushing the acceptance of multimedia in reference and procedural materials like Help. However, there is little research on the value of multimedia in online documentation nor its effective use.This paper describes an exploratory study done for a Master of Information Science thesis to determine the impact of multimedia on online documentation.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Multimedia

The Impact of the Internet and Digital Technologies on Teaching and Research in Technical Communication    

Technical communication practices have been changed dramatically by the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital technologies. Yet, while those who work in the profession have been living through this dramatic change, our academic discipline has been moving at a slower pace, at times appearing quite unsure about how to proceed. This article focuses on the following three areas of opportunity for change in our discipline in relation to digital technologies: access and expectations, scholarship and community building, and accountability and partnering.

Gurak, Laura J. and Ann Hill Duin. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Multimedia>Online