Project: Production of a multilingual multimedia hypertext

Project: Requirements specification of a hypertext

In linguistic terms, a hypertext is a complex sign, and the requirements specification of a hypertext is a characterisation of the function of this sign.

In simple terms, the requirements specification discusses points such as the following:

• What are the objectives, goals for the output of a hypertext production project?
• What is the content (in terms of languages, type of multilingual document like dictionary, manual, translation, automatic translation tools)?
• Who is it for?
• How is it to be used (possible applications)?
• What resources are available?
• Do you need a glossary?

From a linguistic point of view, the requirements specification would consist of an analysis of the functions of the hypertext from any of the following points of view:

• Traditional functional linguistics (e.g. Prague School; Halliday's Systemic Grammar and Functional Semiotics)
• Speech act theory
• Discourse theory
• Traditional text linguistics
• Hypertext theory in modern linguistics

Phases in specifying the requirements:

1. The first part of the requirements specification phase may consist of brainstorming, collection of relevant sources of information, interviews with users;
2. the second part may consist of a systematisation of the requirements specification in terms of relevance, or logical dependencies of various aspects on other aspects.

Project: Design of a hypertext

The design phase discusses points such as the following:

1. Document semantics: the contents part of the requirements specification
2. Document structure:
   • Overall structure (architecture) of the complete document
   • Parts of the document
   • Dependencies between parts of the document
   • Specific parts, including Glossary, Reference, Index, ...
3. Document realisation: layout and rendering as a hypertext
   • What kinds of media materials (text, audio, graphics, video) will you need?
   • What sources are available for these materials?

Project: Implementation of a hypertext

1. Use the appropriate document styles (Title, Heading 1, Standard, etc.) and define them according to your own purposes
2. Use the appropriate document objects, and define them according to your own purposes (lists, tables)

Project: Evaluation of a hypertext

The main question in the evaluation of a hypertext is simply - "Is this a good hypertext?" Of course this begs a number of questions. There is no absolute notion of `goodness': a value judgment of this kind can be made on any number of dimensions. A `good mother' is not necessarily a `good cricket player', and vice versa...

There are two related but different dimensions of evaluation:

1. Functional evaluation: Does the hypertext fulfil your requirements specification?
2. Structural evaluation: Is the document correctly implemented? You can check this by generating different formats, e.g. standard Word DOC, HTML, and testing it with different viewing software, e.g. Word, a web browser.

You can find out more about the different aspects and methods of evaluation by checking the handbook:
Gibbon, Dafydd, Inge Mertins, Roger Moore, eds. (2000). Handbook of Multimodal & Spoken Dialogue Systemws: Resources, Terminology & Product Evaluation. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.