Enriching Hypermedia Application Interfaces

This paper presents a systematic approach for the authoring of animated multimedia transitions in Web applications, following the current trend of rich interfaces. The transitions are defined based on an abstract interface specification, over which a rhetorical structure is overlaid. This structure is then rendered over concrete interfaces by applying rhetorical style sheets, which define concrete animation schemes. The resulting applications has different transition animations defined according the type of navigation being carried out, always emphasizing the semantically important information. Preliminary evaluation indicates better user experience in using these interfaces.