Hypermedia and Associated Concepts

Abstract

There has been considerable speculation of late that the design of hypermedia and Web-based systems warrants new methods different from those used in conventional software design (Kautz & Nørbjerg, 2003). However, much confusion abounds within this debate because fundamental concepts such as hypermedia, multimedia, and Web-based systems are rarely explicitly defined and it is often unclear what is actually meant. This article explains the following interrelated terms: multimedia, interactive multimedia, digital multimedia, interactive digital multimedia, hypertext, hypermedia, and Web-based systems. Such clarification is important because for research results to be comparable and scholarly discourse to be logical, there must be a common language.