Multimedia user interfaces for telecommunications products and services

The emergence of multimedia systems, which incorporate media types such as text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, has great potential to change how people interact with systems and with each other. As multimedia technologies and their applications in telecommunications products and services evolve, some critical human factors challenges in designing these systems are emerging. This paper describes how the use of new multimedia technologies, complemented by the proper application of human factors design principles, can enhance the usability of AT&T products and services. Examples of three types of applications — multimedia-based training, multimedia-based performance support, and multimedia conferencing — highlight challenges specific to the design of multimedia user interfaces.