User and designer centred issues in the development of a multimedia exhibition guide

This paper decribes the development of a multimedia exhibition guide using a User Centred Design approach. Problems with the gathering, capture and integration of data on disparate media using a variety of software and hardware tools are discussed. User centred design is a well established approach to developing highly usable interactive systems. However the juxtaposition of the requirements of ultimedia development, and the changing nature of the planned context of use of the guide as the exhibition itself is developed, make a straightforward application of User Centred Design impossible. This difficulty is explored and some pragmatic solutions are suggested .