Developing an Interactive Illustration: Using Java and the Web to Make It Worthwhile
Jeff Beall · 1999
The World Wide Web has been recognized as a powerful tool for communication. Java has enhanced this by providing an opportunity for rapid transmission of "condensed information" in the form of locally-executable programs. Our own research has been in interactive illustrations for electronic books, with a belief that active reader participation yields better knowledge transfer. The next natural step is to combine these two things into Web-based interactive illustrations. However, the expected payoff --- an enlarged audience and the opportunity to communicate more meaningful content across the Web --- must be balanced against the development costs for the authors. We describe the development process for a set of interactive illustrations on elementary color perception, the costs of converting them to Java, and the costs and the potential benefits for future Web-based interactive illustration development. 2.0 Introduction 2.1 What is an Interactive Illustration? An illustration in a tex...