Exploiting multimedia components in small user interfaces

Small user interfaces (UIs), such as mobile phone interfaces, have so far mainly been text-based. Combining different modalities, such as text, pictures and voice, provides a powerful mechanism for making phone UIs easier and faster to use, less obtrusive and more widely accepted. This study explores how pictures and other multimedia components can be used in small UIs of mobile phones. We identify different semantic classes of pictures that can be used in UIs and discuss their usage. We debate how the limited-size screen can be better utilised by using pictures and different paradigms of the visual UI universe. We identify different levels for how the UI universe can be depicted on the display. We also discuss how the disturbances in the attention of mobile user, caused by the constantly changing environment and limited-size screen, can be compensated by using different multimedia components in different contexts.