Industrial strength hypermedia: design, implementation and application

Many organizations are seeking to improve their competitiveness through the use of information technology. The industrial strength hypermedia approach to information management and delivery allows a single multimedia resource base to be used for a range of applications, and permits a user to have co ntrolled access to the required information, in an easily accessible and st ructured manner. The development of an industrial hypermedia application re quires the adoption of procedures for system design, authoring, and deliver y. This paper presents a design model that allows the structured developmen t of industrial strength hypermedia. The authoring approach adopted at Sout hampton is discussed in this paper, and includes the use of Moduiar-Hyperme dia Applications and clustering to reduce authoring effort. This approach t o information management is illustrated by the development of a large-scale hypermedia information system for Pirelli Cables Ltd, Southampton, UK. In order to assess user acceptance, trials have been undertaken, the results o f which are presented.