Preliminary work on the development of an interactive multimedia information system for a botanic garden

The development of an interactive multimedia information system for use in a large modern botanic garden is described. It is designed to service both staff curatorial needs and general enquiries by visitors. The system consists of a database of plant records comprising textural information and a library of pictures. The user interface employs on-screen buttons and task-oriented menus accessed with a trackerball. A key feature of the interface for visitors is the ability to interact with maps of the garden to determine the location of specific plants or enquire about species within a particular area of the garden. Implementation and development work has been carried out on an Apple Macintosh IIci workstation linked to a laser video disc player, using the hypermedia application SuperCard