Hypermedia module
User System Interaction 

This module runs from Monday 24th February until Friday 7th March 2003.
Note that I will be available in Eindhoven for help with the course on Monday 3rd March. If you need help before or after this date then feel free to email me at Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl.

Links to course materials

Links to related materials

Hypermedia module exercises

Exercise 1 (1 day)
Individual exercise

The goal of this exercise is to analyse the design of a state of the art graphics-intensive Web site.

Explore the Rijksmuseum web site http://www.rijksmuseum.nl .
First choose a language and then explore the Collection (3rd link from the left).
Make notes on what you think is good graphic design, good use of links and good use of media.
More importantly, think about what could be improved in these areas.
Think of some questions you would like the answer to from the site.
Write about your experiences in finding the answer.
Try using search facilities on the site. 
Try exploring the site through navigation.
Write notes on what you find.

Discuss in the report what you would have liked the site to provide.

Publish written report in HTML of 4 pages (2000 words), including illustrations if desired, on your web page and email the URL to Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl. If I have the URL on Thursday 27th February I can provide feedback (by email) on Friday 28th February.

Exercise 2 (2.5 days)
Group exercise (4 per group)

The goal of this exercise is to give you hands on experience with using state of the art multimedia web technology.

Create a presentation in SMIL 2.0 using images and texts from the Rijksmuseum site.  You are also encouraged to find relevant material from other sources and/or make your own audio recordings (e.g. language voice-overs in multiple languages).
Make sure this runs in the RealOne player.

Create the same presentation in XHTML+SMIL (or HTML+TIME).  Make sure it runs on IE 6.

You can use a plain text editor (e.g. Notepad, emacs, vim) or an XML editor (e.g. XML Spy) to create the SMIL and XHTML+SMIL documents.
Some example SMIL presentations can be found at http://www.cwi.nl/~lynda/USI03/SMIL/. Patrick Schmitz's HTML+TIME examples can be found at http://www.ludicrum.org/demos/H+Tdemos.html (use IE 6 to view).

Publish your working presentations on your web page and email the URL to Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl .  Don't forget to state the names of the people in your group in the email.

Write notes about the problems you had in creating the different formats.  
Make a comparison of the two formats you used.  In particular, timing information, ability to include multiple languages, layout information, linking information.

Publish a written report in HTML of 2 pages (1000 words) on your web page and email the URL to Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl . If I have the URL on Tuesday 4th March I can provide feedback (by email) on Wednesday 5th March.

Exercise 3 (2.5 days)
Group exercise (same groups as exercise 2)

The goal of this exercise is to design 2 or more interfaces to the Rijksmuseum Collections tailored to particular user types.

Go to the Cuypers page, http://media.cwi.nl:8080/demo/ and explore the different presentations that can be generated on the topic Rembrandt and Chiaroscuro. In particular, observe what happens when selecting different screen sizes and user types. 
Make notes on the use of layout, timing and links in the different versions, in particular when you feel this is appropriate or inappropriate for the different cases.

Based on your notes, and on your own analyses in exercise 1, create design sketches for at least 2 user types for 2 different devices (e.g. portrait and landscape, or PC screen versus handheld device). Exercise 1 was intended to give some insights into what to think about when designing the presentation of information. While general evaluation techniques are valuable, exercise 3 should focus on three things: While graphic design issues, such as use of colour and fonts, are extremely important in a real-world setting, they are secondary in this exercise. To emphasize the difference in the 3 aspects, use the same colour schemes and same (or sub-set of) media items for both user profiles.
Important points to be included in the report are: Use the technology you feel most comfortable with for communicating your designs. (Make sure I can access the result.)

Feel free to mail me with questions.

The following are ideas which are meant to illustrate what you should try to come up with. Developing your own would, of course, be better:
Publish a written report on your design decisions in HTML of 2 pages (1000 words) on your web page and email the URL to Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl .

Publish your presentations on your web page and email the URL to  Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl.