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There is no doubt that the World-Wide Web is a powerful medium for us to communicate with each other, but it also presents possibilities for us to think about ourselves in new ways in relation to time, space, borders, other human beings and machines. The World-Wide Web, however, is part of an ongoing historical movement called 'Multimedia,' a movement that has engaged in questions about our relationship to technology and to one another for well over a century. In this essay, I will introduce a number of concepts in multimedia and some of the pivotal thinkers that contributed its development. From this survey, we will see that there is an underlying theme in this movement that prizes centering the user, cultivating audience interaction, and supporting creative expression. In addition, I will discuss the implications of these themes and the future of multimedia.
Detera, Eydie. Elements of Information Design (2001). Articles>History>Multimedia
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Problems and Solutions Converting Linear Documents to a Non-Linear Web Environment
The World-Wide Web empowers writers, educators, and businesses with a new medium to display content, communicate to their audiences, advertise, or simply organize information for a new type of presentation. Because the last ten years mark the growth and emergence of web technology and proliferation, web design standards are slowly emerging, and have not yet solidified. The medium is immature, can be misused, and frequently communicates ineffectively. Many writers and designers of web pages are faced with the challenge of converting information traditionally printed linearly to a non-linear presentation on the Web. This changes information organization, encourages the hypertext theory, engages readers, and takes advantage of the dynamic flexibility of the Web.
McKinstry, Barbara. Elements of Information Design (2001). Design>Information Design>Hypertext
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Localization is the process of creating or adapting a product to a specific locale, i.e. to the language, cultural context, conventions and market requirements of a specific target market. In this chapter, we are assuming the English design will be the original design on the basis of which all pages will be localized. The Internet has eliminated distance as a barrier to sharing information at a worldwide level. Now the biggest barrier to communication is language. 2,113,000,000 Internet users speak languages other than English. They make up 70.2% of the world economy. Increasingly multinational companies have their websites localized into multiple languages to take advantage of the promotional and commercial values of the Internet. As they have found, the localization process can be very time-consuming, costly and frustrating if the English web pages were not designed for this purpose.
Sun, Lily. Elements of Information Design (2001). Design>Language>Localization
