As hardware capabilities of multimedia products have been expanded in recent years, means of their interface design are changing significantly. Starting with a comprehensive investigation on current researches, this study aims to identify how visual narrative techniques can be applied in multimedia interface design. This study has examined the theoretical approaches based on established body of knowledge as well as the practical approaches to incarnate field techniques, in order to reveal how multimedia content is visually represented through interface design. Based on these examinations, four implications have been found as new directions of multimedia interface design research; (1) increasing importance of contextuality, (2) considering content as one of interaction subjects, (3) providing idiomatic interface context, (4) considering meaning of the details.
In order to find applicable techniques in accordance with these directions, visual narrative techniques have been investigated intensively based on narrative theories, principles on interface design, and case analyses. Visual narrative techniques have been defined as particular methods with which the design resources are confected visually into multimedia interface elements such as icons, texts, images, and so on. Multimedia interfaces can be visualized through four representational layers; control layer, figure layer, ground layer, and context layer. Furthermore their sequentialities can be achieved by four major components; sequentiality by visual elements, by behaviour, by location, and by meaning. In this study, visual narrative techniques have been classified into 4 x 4 matrix of layers and sequentialities, and closely investigated with each case. A visual narrative technique model has been developed, and applied into analyses of several cases for evaluation. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the model can be useful to identify problems with visual communication between multimedia content and users, and to suggest improvements. Visual narrative techniques can be used widely as guidelines for interface design planning, or as checklist for evaluation for the iterative interface design process.
