Pat’s Point of View

I was sorting through some old CDs and found my uni thesis, from my Bachelor of Computer Systems Engineering at UTS. I guess I was already on my career path by that stage (Spring 1998).

Abstract

Hypermedia is a burgeoning, exciting and vastly popular new field of computing. It combines interlinked, structured information with interactive multimedia, to provide better access and retrieval of information. Hypermedia systems not only augment, but mimic, human memory providing an unparallelled representation of knowledge and information. Modern technology has provided greater opportunity to create bigger and better Hypermedia systems; multimedia CD-ROMs and the World Wide Web are two popular examples.

Hypermedia development revolves around building information systems to effectively convey information to its user. This often includes the use of existing information, transformed into a more appropriate format. Improving these transformations was the focus of this project. By making use of existing information the authors of that information can continue to maintain it without change to their work practices. The transformation to a different format allows the information to be presented in the most effective way for any particular audience.

Current Hypermedia development tools, techniques and processes were analysed, their major problems highlighted, and the technologies available for solving these problems were evaluated. The concepts behind an improved approach to Hypermedia development were defined, including: selectivity in data transformation, universal compatibility of transformation and automation of transformation. These concepts create more efficient development processes, which are better able to meet the goals of Hypermedia.

A development system named Dynamic Hypermedia Authoring System (DHAS) was devised, and a corresponding software tool was developed to demonstrate the application of these concepts to real Hypermedia development. This system involved the transformation of information from one format, such as word processing documents, to another format such as a web site.

The software development process is summarised, including the analysis, design and implementation. Future extensions to this work and further improvements to Hypermedia development are also discussed. The management of this project was examined, providing details of all work completed, and reflection on the academic, professional, theoretical, practical and personal results of this project.

There’s more…143 pages in all. I don’t remember it being that long. You can read the whole thing if you like (863kB PDF).

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 1st, 2006 at 5:05 pm and is filed under IA, Ramblings, Web design. If you enjoyed this post, you might also like to leave a comment or follow @patrickkennedy on Twitter.

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About the author

Patrick Kennedy is a user experience strategist and design researcher based in Sydney Australia. He leads research activities that improve the user experience of cross-channel products and services; helping both designers and business decision makers in bringing those products and services to fruition. Read more.