NAVIGATION - DIMENSIONS & METAPHORS:

Like any map and compass, clear multimedia navigation should offer the user an easy means of traversing the virtual environment. It is a mainly visual medium and there is a lot of layering of information in multimedia development, but sometimes a picture can’t say as much as one well chosen word. How we arrange our words and deciding what other assets reinforce their meaning is the writer’s task.

Clearly structured applications offer consistent navigation options. Navigation involves the careful arrangement of subject matter (DIMENSIONS) into logical order and provides the means (METAPHORS) to access that content, using visual icons as tools. In this case, DIMENSIONS are all the types of information available, arranged into layers. Making models with index cards, images or objects can be very helpful in representing a clear view of these structures.

In multimedia development the word METAPHOR has a deeper, more abstract meaning than in writing for films or novels. They represent the user’s virtual senses, and also how the virtual world presents itself to the user; e.g. you may use an enamel bowl in your kitchen, it’s a very familiar object to you and delivers the expectation of a certain outcome - holding fruit.

You may see the same bowl in another location, creating for you the kitchen association, but this bowl is used in a laundry, it's full of soap and there are many other bowls in many different rooms. The X-box Eye Toy is an example where the user actually becomes an onscreen metaphor, manipulating other metaphors by actual hand operation in mid-air.

These interactive tools help the user understand both their movements in the document, and also within the overall structure of the INFORMATION SPACE.

This is the most important part of any design. An OVERVIEW DIAGRAM is like a satellite photograph of the information space, developed as an overall structure or map of all the interactive possibilities. This overview can be developed into a functioning 'display' icon to represent the information space.

The use of these 3D maps in gaming navigation has become very complex, and the metaphors are literal representations of objects; e.g. a machine gun, a racing car. Writers can represent any experience, any feelings – violent, poetic or otherwise, in an infinite combination of realities. These activities generate new and unique visual languages, fresh informational symbols, demanding various critical responses from the user.

The on-screen visual metaphor should bear an instinctive relationship to the activity, pushing and clicking on icons; e.g. the 'Grabbing Hand' on the Mac Desktop. Instant access to navigation instructions is always a good idea, so supplying flags and help balloons are easy options. All the interactive elements should play a roll in achieving the purpose of the application.

When conceptualizing complex navigation metaphors, try to think of movements or sensations that are synonymous with the subject. They should appeal to the target audience and match the style and mood of the project. The aim is to encapsulate the most sensuous aspect of an idea, give it a physical shape and feeling, and then represent it as an active graphic.