Sophie Tools and Materials in Multimedia Book Creation

Sophie is an authoring tool for interactive multimedia books. The Sophie user can combine different kinds of media and synchronize them with events and time. Such highly interactive systems are difficult to design and to implement. The large amount of functionality provided has to be balanced with a significant ease of use. The standard software engineering approaches for the construction of large software systems are insufficient concerning the special requirements of interactive systems. The tools and materials pattern language is an alternative approach to design interactive systems. This paper exemplifies the use and benefits of tools and materials by the Sophie application.