Animators Art Directors Graphic Designers Interface Designers Programmers Sound Producers Video Producers Writers Why are these jobs Emerging? They fit the category of: -- New occupations created by technological innovations, shifting markets, or regulations As the ability to use computers to bring together text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video to educate, inform and entertain, specialized occupations emerge that require specific knowledge and skills. "Something extraordinary is happening on a global scale.

Five mega-industries -- personal computing, consumer electronics, publishing, entertainment, and telecommunications -- are converging. By the year 2000. almost everything we see on TV, read in print, view at the theater, and receive over wires or airwaves will be easily accessible and available anywhere, at any time. One of the great challenges with this incredible array of digital information is to provide interfaces and searching mechanisms that allow people to sift this information. Multimedia represents intuitive and realistic ways for people to sort through this digital web." Multimedia Demystified: A Guide to the World of Multimedia from Apple Computer, Inc. Overview Have you ever played or seen someone play a video game? If so, you are already acquainted with at least one form of multimedia*. Or perhaps you've been in an airport lately and noticed or had occasion to use a kiosk where simply pressing pictures or buttons on a screen provided information about local hotels, restaurants and rental cars or even printed a custom map showing the route from the airport to the destination you selected. This is another form of multimedia, or as it is also called, new media. Multimedia uses computers to bring together text, sounds, animation, graphic art and video to educate, inform and entertain.

Many experts believe that multimedia will fundamentally change the way people learn, communicate and entertain themselves in the future. It will do so by allowing the user to choose and customize how and what information he or she receives and when it is received. Unlike linear media such as film and video, users can interact with multimedia, directing the sequence, speed and other aspects of the presentation. A number of successful multimedia developers have commented upon the benefit of spending significant amounts of time experiencing already completed projects. A day spent at a video arcade can provide a wealth of information about multimedia games. Many schools use multimedia products in their curriculum as do businesses and other organizations in their training programs. Information kiosks in shopping centers and airports can also provide experience with interactive multimedia.

These types of direct experience can offer a personal understanding and appreciation of the components of multimedia (such as graphics, animation, video, sound, interface design** and mode of interactivity) as well as a basis for evaluating what "works" and what doesn't work. Since multimedia seeks to compel or at least invite the user to enter the created environment, the multimedia developer must always be cognizant of the reaction of the user to the program. A technically superb product that is not interesting, easy to navigate, or useful to the user will not be considered a success.

The developer must know who the user is and what experiences he or she wants that user to have and then provide an environment that creates that experience. The entire project from beginning to end must be conceptualized, designed and executed with this goal continually in mind. At its most basic level, multimedia is a tool that provides access to information. The heart of a really good multimedia product is a clear path from the user to the information he or she is seeking. People working in the industry create this path.