This text presents research and development and industrial experience of usability engineering for multimedia user interfaces. It discusses the methods, tools and guidelines for multimedia use and implementation and covers the following topics in detail: design methods for multimedia (MM) systems; social and cognitive models for MM interaction; empirical studies of the effects of MM on learning and behaviour; design and prototyping support tools; intelligent MM Systems and Design support; and usability evaluation. The book contains the proceedings of the International Working Conference on Designing Effective and usable Multimedia Systems, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), held in Stuttgart, Germany, in September 1998. It should be of interest to computer scientists, software developers, information systems managers and human scientists, especially those working in the applied disciplines such as human factors and interface design.