In 1981 during the course of a Civil Service Churchill Travelling Fellowship in the United States to look at new developments in broadcasting and moving pictures using new and developing technologies John Hall was able to study what was then called “interactive multimedia”.
The very new concept of interactive multimedia consisted of using, a mix of moving pictures, stills and graphics controlled by a computer that enabled any part of the programme to be accessed at will. The programme material was stored on 12 inch video discs ( the same size of the old long playing gramophone records) whose player was accessed through the controlling computer and thence to a screen.
Early work on developing the concept and some applications had been funded by the US Air Force under their advanced research projects scheme DARPA. The development work was being carried out at the University of Nebraska and at MIT in Cambridge Mass. The driving purpose of the work was to create teaching programs for engineers servicing the jet engines of advanced aircraft.. They envisaged the multimedia programs serving as maintenance manuals storing large amounts of information easily accessible in the field. Fortunately John Hall was able to visit both institutions who were most helpful in explaining their work.,
The concept of learning or accessing information by discovery was very exciting. Film Division had become aware that some “information” films produced as linear information vehicles lecturing the recipients, were often less than effective in conveying information in a form that was retained or acted on by the target audience.
In education circles the concept of learning by discovery was of course well entrenched. Children learnt more effectively by finding information for themselves from information stores called books and stored in libraries. It seemed entirely possible that audiences for government information programs might better understand and retain the information on offer more effectively by using the new technology of interactive multimedia. In 2021 we are looking back to the first tender shoots of what was to become a wholesale revolution in the way we now access information. In 1981 it was a strange new world and the possibilities only to be guessed at.
Given knowledge of the technology, Film Division set about attempting to interest departments in the possibilities offered by the new technology. They looked looked for possible projects in two areas. First, projects that served public information purposes, then projects for management training purposes.
Eventually three Departments agreed to fund experimental programs whose main aim was to serve as demonstrations of the potential of the new technology. The projects were:
“Anita” was a training program funded by the Civil Service Department. The training purpose was instruct and give experience to Civil Service line managers who were being required to conduct annual appraisal interviews with their staff.
These interviews had been introduced in relatively recent years. The experience of colleagues in the COI had not been re-assuring in the sense of feeling that the interviews fully satisfied the expectations we had been told might flow from them. It seemed that a successful interview required a great deal more in terms of interview skills than we possessed.
The aspiration for "Anita" was that it might provide some insight into the necessary skills by enabling a line manager to practice interviewing in much the same way that airline pilots practiced flying on a simulator.
So the "Anita" program was designed to enable a line manager to “interview” a Clerical Officer (Anita who was present on video)) through asking a series of questions and choosing from a variety of answers. Depending on the choices or routes, made by the line manager the eventual outcomes were either very satisfactory, that is that Anita felt that the interview went well, she now understood and accepted her strengths and weaknesses and what she had to do to correct them in the year to come. Alternatively the end result was that Anita was clearly in a muddle and not sure of her situation. The worst outcome was that she burst into tears and ran out of the room. In which case the user of the programme was invited to start again and to carefully consider the choices he had made when interviewing Anita.
The essential point for the line manager was that the program could be repeated a number of times thus enabling the line manager to gain an understanding of the nature of the interview process.
To see a video showing a line manager using the program (click here to view)
“Taxfax” was initiated in 1982 and completed in 1983 and was funded by the Inland Revenue as a means of providing information about income tax to the general public in places such as shopping malls or other public spaces. In this case presentation of the programme was very important since it was essential to engage the interest of the public and enable people to gain an understanding of the way the income tax system worked.
The agreed information objective was to provide basic tax information in a way that would promote the image of the Inland Revenue and provide a real time service to the taxpayer on day to day enquiries such as What happens when I retire? Or get married? Or what is my allowance? Or best of all How much tax should I be paying?
The users needs were defined as including the importance of the project being easy to use. Capable of attracting attention and engaging potential users, thus emphasising the importance of appearance and design.
The total cost not to exceed £54,000 at 1982 prices with a timescale of 22 weeks. The project proceeded smoothly using known equipment and software.
The program was contained in a bright red plastic box approximately 60 cm long x 30cm high x 30cm deep. In the centre of the front of the box was a television screen around 20 cm high x 18cm cm wide. Just below the screen were two large buttons around 6cm x 3cm set side by side. One button was labelled YES the other NO. Above and on the right hand side of the screen was an alpha-numeric key pad. The only requirement of the user was to press the YES or NO buttons when answering questions and when the point came to calculate levels of tax, to enter details of income using the alpha-numeric pad which provided a print out of the users tax liabilities.
It was intended that the "Taxfax" box would be set up in a public space for instance a shopping mall. It would placed on a stand. When switched on the television screen would show a still picture of an Income Tax Inspector with a superimposed caption: Anything you would like to know about your income tax? When a customer pressed the YES button, the still picture came to life with the Inspector ( a nice and smiling lady inspector) welcoming the user by offering to provide help about tax problems: would the customer like to have help? If so press YES button. The customer was then led through a series of questions which could be answered by pressing the appropriate button.
Did it work? This was tested at the Eldon Square shopping centre in Newcastle essentially by observation from a short distance. The observations showed that the system worked just fine. One lady discovered that she had overpaid tax by some £1200 and was able to take the printout to her local tax office to get a refund. Anelderly gentleman was seen, at the end of his session, raising his hat and thanking the inspector for her help, while a young couple working their way through the section on “Getting Married” fell into argument about who should press the buttons.
The project was shown to the Board of the Inland Revenue where it was discussed at some length. It was recognised that the cost of rolling out the program across the country would be substantial. Other demands on the finances of the Inland Revenue took precedence. In retrospect the decision was correct since substantial public use of the program required investment together with on-going maintenance costs. Moreover the technology changed as the 12 inch videodiscs gave way to CDs and then to DVDs.
“Navyfax” was, in 1986, the last of the three interactive multimedia projects to be produced . It followed research commissioned through COI Research Division on the existing range of Royal Navy recruitment films available to Schools Liaison Officers. (SLOs) . While the films were in many ways essential to support the work of the SLOs there was a sense of their limitations in always being clear to their audience of boys about the situations being shown. The limitation of seeing just the once an unfamiliar situation and then understanding what was going on and remembering detailed information was often present..
One particular point raised by several SLOs was the need for what they described as a “sparky”films. that is something different and exciting to really spark their interest in joining the Royal Navy. When Film Division demonstrated interactive multimedia to the navy there was immediate interest, moreover with a specific area of use in mind. The intention was that the program would be manned and used by Royal Navy staff at large exhibitions. The Royal Navy (as did the other services) regularly mounted exhibitions at the Boat Show, the Ideal Home Exhibition and the Motor Show and others attended by large numbers of the public and their children. The possibility of adding an interactive display to their stand was very attractive thus agreement was given for the project to be developed.
The approach to this project was defined as producing an interactive program which would be a “sparker” for the Navy rather than a documentary about it. It should create a good impression of life aboard ship and leave the potential recruit with a feeling of identification and a wish to know more.
The project was to be a blend between interactive video and Surrogate Travel. It was to be a tour of HMS Manchester. The user would be able to select a guide appropriate to his interest in joining the Navy as either an officer or a rating. He was be able to select the areas aboard ship he wished to visit and request information from crew members present about their life and work aboard ship. Additional information about equipment and routines was also be available. There was to be two interactive elements. Firstly in the freedom to roam the ship, (ie the surrogate travel element) the work aboard the ship and this could include an invitation to try steering the ship or to fire a missile ( i.e. the interactive video element)
As produced the project was built into exhibition stands. Users (boys generally) could operate the program using a joy stick. This enabled them to go on board ship and move around the ship. Go up to the bridge and meet the captain who would answer questions. Go down to the operations room and meet the control officer, along to the galley and meet the cooks, down to the engine room and meet the engineers and so on.
The users could choose where they wanted to go and who they wanted to speak to. In effect they were able to discover what life of aboard this ship a was like. The ship being a type 42 guided missile destroyer.
The interactive programme was very successful with users. The Navy acquired three sets of the equipment which were used for a number of years at exhibitions and visits to schools as an information and recruiting programme for those interested in a possible career in the Royal Navy.
Summary
In the case of “Anita” Film Division were looking to explore the effectiveness of the technology to improve the quality of appraisals in the Civil Service that were often known to be poor.
In the case of “Taxfax” Film Division wanted to explore the effectiveness in conveying quite large amounts of information to the general public which would otherwise be offered in often somewhat difficult to read and comprehend, pamphlets. The project, that is the program, the presentation box and the research was given careful consideration by the Board of the Inland Revenue. In order to make an effective nationwide contribution it was recognised that several hundred sets would be required together with maintenance. In effect a substantial capital expenditure. In retrospect the Inland Revenue were wise not to proceed since the technology was to change and evolve.
In the case of “Navyfax” the purpose to explore the potential for interactive multimedia to enable young people to discover information about the navy rather than simply being lectured about it. Navyfax succeeded in achieving that objective.
The starting point for all three projects was that they were experimental at a time when the use of computers outside of large companies was relatively new.
In the event all three were successful in demonstrating that the objectives could be achieved. Only one, Navyfax went on to be successfully used as a working tool by the Navy. The reason was because the transition from experiment to working tool only required the purchase of three sets of additional equipment and integration with exhibition stands.
By contrast in the case of Anita to provide not just copies but numerous sets of interactive equipment, (at that time rather bulky equipment) for distribution widely in the Civil Service. This implied considerable expenditure. The Marketing Section of Films Division made several attempts to involve commercial distributors in the project without success.
The fundamental reason that these projects were not taken forward at that time was that they were ahead of the period when interactive media took off, which was some years later.
By then the technology had evolved, no longer bulky 12 inch videodiscs but 5 inch DVDs which could played on a range of widely available home computers.
However it was a demonstration that Film Division were among the early pioneers of interactive multimedia. The definition of a pioneer is sometimes given as the “one out front with an arrow in his back”. A number of fellow pioneers such as the BBC with its ambitious Doomsday project, British Rail with a large training project and others also took their share of arrows.