This thesis reports on two studies in the field of multimedia. The older one, completed in 2002, has as a general aim to explore, describe and analyse the concept of multimedia in relation to the concept of information systems. Four areas are investigated: product, process, requirements work and knowledge exchange between developers of multimedia systems and developers of information systems. The main research question has been: What are the distinguishing features of multimedia and how can multimedia be characterised from an information systems perspective? The investigation has shown that multimedia development is characterized by co-operation between people from many different areas of expertise who respect each other’s knowledge. The development work requires creativity, rationality and a systematic approach Detailed explicit requirements specifications are seldom produced in the companies studied. Specifying requirements for multimedia products is complicated which seems to stem from the nature of multimedia which makes the products hard to describe using traditional means such as text.

A more recent study, completed in 2004, continues the investigation of the challenges concerning requirements specifications for multimedia products reported in the first study. For this purpose, a new methodology for experimenting with graphical user interfaces to obtain acceptable design solutions has been developed and tested. This methodology is based on an experimental technique called ‘Wizard of Oz’. In Wizard-of-Oz experiments a test person thinks he communicates with the computer in front of him when in actual fact the test manager sits in the next room interpreting the user’s commands and providing the desired responses. In order to use this technique for experimenting with graphical user interfaces a prototyping tool called Ozlab has been utilized. Ozlab has been used to allow doctors and nurses to participate in the design of a new user interface in a robot application for hip surgery. The results show that graphical Wizard-of-Oz prototyping can be a useful tool for exploration, visualization and communication of interaction requirements in multimedia product development.

The most recent study is placed first in this volume, followed by the older study (Karlstad University Studies 2002:24).