Document Design - Volume 1, Issue 1, 1999

Multimedia explanations are communications using words and pictures to explain how something works, including animation and narration in computer-based environments or text and illustrations in book-based environments. A cognitive theory of multimedia learning reveals a concurrence requirement for meaningful learning, in which corresponding verbal and pictorial representations must be held in working memory at the same time. Based on a theory-based research program, I propose five design principles: multimedia principle, to use words and pictures rather than words alone; contiguity principle, to place words close to corresponding pictures on a page or to present narration concurrently with corresponding animation; coherence principle, to minimize extraneous words, pictures, and sounds; modality principle, to present words as speech rather than as on-screen text; and individual differences principle, to use these design principles particularly for low-experience rather than high-experience learners and for high-spatial rather than low-spatial learners. Multimedia messages offer great potential for improving the effectiveness of communication, but only to the extent that their design is based on theory and research.

Richard Saul Wurman most recently attracted attention as the creator of Information Architects, a showcase book wherein twenty accomplished information architects present and discuss their graphic representations of information. Mr. Wurman is also the creator/host of the TED Conferences, which gather luminaries to ignite in the convergence of Technology, Entertainment and Design; in February 2000, TED x will be held in Monterey, California.Mr. Wurman also is or has been an architect of buildings, a mapmaker, and a redesigner of many things. For a 13-year period spanning the 60s, he published a series of architecturally oriented books on building comparisons, city analyses and Louis Kahn. In the early 80s Mr. Wurman began producing his highly successful ACCESS Guides to major cities; since then he has published dozens of guides to cities and a variety of topics including medical procedures. In 1987 he founded a company called the Understanding Business which created new formats for a variety of common documents, most notably road atlases and telephone books. In 1990, Mr. Wurman wrote Information Anxiety, an exploration of the problems we experience as a result of the information explosion; the enduring value of that work testifies to its perspicacity.

Informational text has been frequently criticized for being either bland and failing to promote appreciation for a subject or sensualized at the expense of responsible accuracy. This article suggests some guidelines for producing responsible but engaging informational text. Support is provided from cognitive theory, empirical research, and classic maxims of rhetoric. Guidelines include using concrete language in a judicious manner, supporting abstractions with concrete examples and explanations, and the use of personalization. Brief examples are provided.

This study focuses on the impact of linguistic markers of coherence on the comprehension of expository discourse. The impact of such markers on comprehension (i.e., off-line) is a highly controversial topic in current studies, especially for connectives for which a facilitating as well as an interfering role has been demonstrated. As a matter of fact, it seems that connectives facilitate the comprehension process in that they improve the reading process, but that they do not increase comprehension of the text. It might even be possible that they ease the reading task in such a way that they provide the reader with the 'impression' of having understood the text instead of a real understanding.The objective of the experiment was to test this far-reaching hypothesis for the use of connectives in expository texts. We wanted to determine the impact of causal connectives such as because ('parce que') and so ('donc') on comprehension and on the feeling of understanding, contrasting it with the impact of anaphoric expressions. Contrary to previous results, our experiment shows that the presence of connectives actually improved comprehension while it did not have an impact on the perception of understanding.