Provides information on designing an effective and efficient computer user interface. Topics include determining an audience's mental model of the subject; creating effective navigation systems; components of the interface; what to consider when designing the interface; and the multimedia interface design process. (Author/LRW)

Four commercial World Wide Web browsers are evaluated for features such as handling of WWW protocols and different URLs: FTP, Telnet, Gopher and WAIS, and e-mail and news; bookmark capabilities; navigation features; file management; and security support. (JKP)

Hypertext is well-suited for educational applications where open learning and knowledge exploration is desired. In such applications, principles of good hypertext interface design should be employed to avoid navigational problems so as to maximize learning. Interface design, however, may also directly enhance acquisition of a particular knowledge…

Presents six principles for building and evaluating Web-based information retrieval interfaces: help the user develop an understanding of the interface and search process, judge the value of continuing search paths, and refine search queries or search topics; avoid complex navigation; make system actions explicit; and provide verbal labels…

Describes a usability study conducted with health sciences students at the University of Washington that explored interface issues in the GramStain Tutor, an educational software program on CD-ROM, particularly the navigation of the program and the use of embedded design features. (LRW)

This paper shows how to use design patterns for building educational multimedia applications. The first section summarizes design issues related to organizing the information, the organization of the interface, and implementation. Navigating through information is covered in the second section, including problems, motivations, and solutions, and…

Users of content-based software programs, including hypertexts and instructional multimedia, rely on the navigation functions provided by the designers of those program. Typical navigation schemes use abstract symbols (arrows) to label basic navigational functions like moving forward or backward through screen displays. In a previous study, the…

Within an electronic education market, an electronic education mall is defined as a virtual service center to support various transaction processes by providing a technological platform with appropriate value-added services and interfaces for suppliers and customers. In this context, an education broker service is of central importance, because…

This paper describes a solution to the user identification and tracking problem within an educational World Wide Web environment. The paper begins with an overview of the Teaching Support System project at the University of Girona (Spain); the main objective of the project is to create an integrated set of tools for teachers to use to create and…

This paper describes an authoring tool, Visual Constructor, that is being developed to help users without technical knowledge to create and organize World Wide Web-based course contents. The following goals of Visual Constructor are highlighted: (1) it does not require any knowledge of evolving Web technology; (2) the user interface is easy to…

This paper introduces a multimedia-based educational system on logistics developed at the University of Magdeburg (Germany), reports on development and implementation of the prototype, and discusses ideas for redesign. The system was tested, used, and evaluated at the university and within a European network of 24 universities, colleges, and…