ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces usability problems in multimedia and virtual reality (VR), motivates the need for Human-Computer Interface design advice, and then introduces some knowledge of psychology that will be used in the design process. Multimedia and VR are treated as separate topics, but this is a false distinction. They are really technologies that extend the earlier generation of graphical user interfaces with a richer set of media, 3D graphics to portray interactive worlds, and more complex interactive devices that advance interaction beyond the limitations of keyboards and the mouse. A better description is to refer to these technologies as multisensory user interfaces, that is, advanced user interfaces that enable us to communicate with computers with all of our senses. One of the first multisensory interfaces was an interactive room for information management created in the “put that there project” in MIT. A 3D graphical world was projected in a room similar to a CAVE-like (Collaborative Automated Virtual Environment) environment. The user sat in a chair and could interact by voice, pointing by hand gesture and eye gaze. Eye gaze was the least effective mode of interaction, partly because of the poor reliability of tracking technology (which has since improved), but also because gaze is inherently difficult to control. Gazing at an object can be casual scanning or an act of selection. To signal the difference between the two, a button control had to be used.
