Multimedia is a feature of many web based and electronic information documents. Multimedia should create an interesting learning or entertainment atmosphere. MultiReader has shown that it is not sufficient to merely provide videos, images and sounds. Many users of multimedia would benefit from alternative modes of presentation, e.g. audio description of videos, subtitles, narration, sign language interpretation, text descriptions.
Due to extensive user requirement elicitation and several cycles of user centred iterative design, the MultiReader project has been able to draw together a complete set of user requirements. This information can be seen as a matrix of media and needs, identifying the different formats that each media object can and should be made available in. This knowledge will allow designers of multimedia to be confident in the level of provision they are supplying to print disabled readers.
Knowledge of methodology for user requirement and evaluation techniques:
The elicitation of user requirements and evaluation data is often concentrated on one user group per project. The MultiReader project has taken a pan-disability approach, and has developed a methodology for dealing with multiple responses from multiple user groups.
A matrix of user groups vs user requirements was established, this in turn identified the areas which would be the focus of the evaluations. This identification was based upon the number of users who highlighted areas of greatest need for, or frequent use of specific features in a multimedia reading system.
More information on the Multireader project can be found at: http://www.multireader.org/