Multimedia is the combinations of “digitally manipulated text, photographs, graphic art, sound animation and video elements” (Vaughan, 2004, p. 1.). In its early applications, multimedia was primarily linear presentations of material with no user control over the sequence of the presentation, yet with improvements of computer processor speeds, multimedia moved from sequential presentations to non-linear user controlled interactive applications. These applications often combined sequential and hierarchical navigation schemes. When creating a hierarchical navigation the designer should create a flow chart that describes the hierarchical relationships amongst the content. Click to view and example of a hierarchical navigation flowchart.

Once the flow chart is complete, an information architect often creates story boards (also referred to as functional templates) that describe how the user will interact and navigate within the application. It is important to note that the storyboards do not define the layout of the interface. They are distributed to the development team at which time the interface designer determines the appropriate layout and the programmers determine the technology required to support the required interactions.

References

Vaughan, T. (2004). Multimedia: Making It Work (6th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill Technology Education.