INTERACTIVITY IN MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION

Interactivity in multimedia application

Multimedia

As we all know, multimedia is widely used in many sectors such as business, entertainment, art, medicine and engineering. For example, any information that is shared through any electronic medium such as power point, word or usage of search results or animations from internet can be considered as multimedia usage. “Multimedia” comes from the word “multi” which means various and “media” refers to any hardware or software used for communicating (interact with computer to perform certain task).A complete multimedia system consist of five main elements which includes text, graphic, audio, video, and animation (Asuhimi, 2010).

Interactivity

According to Barker (1994:1), interactivity in learning is "a necessary and fundamental mechanism for knowledge acquisition and the development of both cognitive and physical skills". Interactivity is the real key to an effective multimedia title. It gives a feel of more personal to the user. Input devices such as a keyboard, joystick, mouse, left and right arrow keys and touch screen are normally used in interaction process (Assuhimi, 2010).

Interactivity can be accomplished by linking all of the multimedia components that are text, graphics, animation, audio and video into a interrelated interactive application (Rod Sims, 1997). For an effective instructional practice and individual discovery, interaction is vital. 

According to Rod Sims and Roderick (1997) implementation of interactivity is considered as an art as it requires wide-ranging of skills, such as indulgence of the learner, gratefulness of software engineering capabilities, the significance of rigorous instructional design and the use of appropriate graphical interfaces.

Levels of Interactivity

     a)           Linear interactivity

Linear interactivity refers to the collaboration between the user and the multimedia application without controlling the progress of the content. It is a passive interaction in other words. The linear content is usually arranged in sequence (Scribd, 2013). An example of the multimedia linear content is a movie in you tube. Although it uses combination of audio, graphics and animations, the user cannot control over the sequence of events. A button is used to perform one task such as play, pause, and so on. 

     b)    Non-linear interactivity

Non-linear interactivity allows the user to work together with the content depending on their wish. It is a two-way communication where the user able to control the progress and sequence of

multimedia content by using many buttons or links.                                                                           Since the interaction might affect and change the overall arrangement of the presentation, it is more difficult to accomplish and upkeep. Multimedia applications contain both static elements, like text and graphic or image and continuous or dynamic elements, like video and audio files (Asuhimi, 2010).                                                                                                        

According to Dick Bulterman (2007) a hyperlink can be inserted easily into a static object but it is considerably complex for continuous media.

                                                 

Interactive interface

Computer interfaces are not really interactive as the sequence which drives it are rarely intelligent to behave as tacit associates. If we go more deeper, what is missing in interactivity is that it is actually interactivity is a coupling of complex and dynamic relational between two or more intelligent parties (Krish, 1992).  

According to Krish (1992), interface which is considered good should help us to decide on what to do next. This idea indirectly drives the users in beneficial path is objective for all well designed multimedia interfaces, not only for learning environments. This concept is mutually accepted (Norman, 1998; Hutchins, Hollan and Norman, 1986) that a good interface is responsible to fulfill the principle of visibility where the users should be able to see the actions that are open to them; they should receive immediate feedback about the actions that they have just taken. It is a good practice as the users could know what the computer is doing. And they would get insightful information time to time on the consequences of their actions. The other complicated task is the interactivity built into a multimedia environment which is sensitive to the goals of the user, and help to direct them in fruitful directions as they wish. But it is almost  impossible (Gibson, 1966 cited by Krish, 1992).

Dave Marshall (2001) Interactive Multimedia Applications can be divided into three basic types which include menu driven programs or presentations, hypermedia and simulations / performance-dependent simulations. Menu driven programs has a hierarchical structure which has main menu, sub-menus. Hypermedia on the other hand is less structured. It is non-linear but we can get quick access to information that is required by us. It has more interesting buttons to operate. The third type which is simulations or performance-dependent simulations is what most of us use in order to play games (Dave Marshall, 2001). 

Extent of the interactive media revolution

There are many industries that are already moved to computer basis. As an effect of it the developers are assigned to come out with many new applications. The very visible development done is social media. Example Facebook, twitter, blogger and many web browser which allows us to browse such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and others ( ATSF White Paper, 2002).

According to ATSF (2002), more challenging and more interactive programs are being produced and upgraded where the user will be involved together with it like games will be controlled by our body movement .More advancements are in progress.

Conclusion

After gone through many websites and articles, I get to know about many things about interactivity and multimedia. Multimedia, the word itself reflects the meaning which is incorporation of text, graphic, audio, video, and animation. But all this components must interact with each other in correct way. If one goes wrong everything will collapse. So, it is important that all must work together to get perfect media.

Interactivity (which is interact) has synonym which is communication. In communication, there will be a listener and a speaker where the listener listens and respond to the speaker. Same goes to interactivity. The user will input or command something and the computer (multimedia) executes it which is referred as interactivity in multimedia applications.

The ability of consumer to control an application defines the type of interactivity. If the program requires the user to only press certain button to and sit back without doing anything is linear interactivity. On the other hand, non-linear interactivity requires the operator to control/decide and perform based on their wish.

As the world is shrinking to our finger tips, thus many applications are designed to be interactive interfaces. This is widely seen in invention of medias such as Facebook, twitter, blogger and many web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and others. Interactivity has given a chance to us to explore things based on the users wished. As a user, we should appreciate the gift of interactivity to us.

I would say that this assignment has been an eye-opener for me. I will try to incorporate all appropriate elements which are use full for my future assignments which will be impressive to others. I will try to integrate the information about interactivity and help my team members to complete other assignments and projects.    

Reference

ATSF White Paper, 2002 Interactive Media UK [pdf] Available at:                                       <http://www.atsf.co.uk/atsf/interactive_media.pdf> [Accessed 13 September 2013].

Asuhimi, 2010. Multimedia concepts.  Learning area 4a.blogspot.com, [blog] n.d. July. Available at:                                                                                                    <http://learningarea4a.blogspot.com/2010/07/multimedia-concepts.html > [Accessed 11 September 2013].                                                                                       

Asuhimi, 2010. Interactivity of multimedia-lesson 22, 24. Learning area 4a.blogspot.com, [blog] n.d. July. Available at: <http://learningarea4a.blogspot.com/2010/07/interactivity-of-multimedia-lesson-22.html> [Accessed 11 September 2013].

Dave Marshall, 2001.  Types of Interactive multimedia applications. [Online] (10 April 2001) Available at:                                                                                                          <http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/Multimedia/node36.html#SECTION02141510000000000000> [Accessed 14 September 2013].

Dick Bulterman, C.A., 2007. User-centered control within multimedia presentations. [online] Springer-Verlag. Available at:                                                                        < http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00530-006-0065-6> [Accessed 13September 2013].

Kish, D., 1992.  Interactivity and Multimedia Interfaces. [Online] Available at: <http://adrenaline.ucsd.edu/kirsh/Articles/Interactivity/brock-single.html> [Accessed 15 September 2013].

Schwier, 1993. Interactive Multimedia Instruction. [Online] Available at:           <http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwitr/docs/interact/> [Accessed 12 September 2013].

Scribd, 2013. What is linear interactivity. [Online] Available at: <http://www.scribd.com/doc/58070055/8/WHAT-IS-LINEAR-INTERACTIVITY> [Accessed 13 September 2013].

Sims, Roderick, 1997. Interactivity: A Forgotten Art. [Online] (27January 1997) Available at:<http://intro.base.org/docs/interact/> [Accessed 10 September 2013].