For instance, these can take the form of radio buttons Listen, Speak and Wait and highlighted answers in dialogue mode, voice graphs and scoring scales in the pronunciation scene, comprehension questions with coloured ticks, help and navigation. Adopting a different presentation, exercises are graphically presented in a bookbinder form complete with tags presenting the range of activities by means of colourful icons. In all, this multimedia platform displays an interface rich in colours, animated graphics, sound and video recordings enhanced by speech recognition. The adopted style of the design is predictably conventional for such a multimedia product, which attempts to appeal to and cater for a sizeable market and a wide range of different user groups. As a result, the screen layout feels too crammed with graphics, colours and animation.
Sound effects evaluating good and bad answers are at least optional.
The display itself looks old fashioned in its choice of adopted graphic styles for objects, icons, animation and cartoons in the Grammar section as well as in its conscious decision to prioritize the visual impact in the practice and assimilation modes. In its efforts to capture the widest possible market it might be perceived as visually disconcerting or simply patronizing by more advanced or mature learners in a formal educational setting. At the macro level, the toolbar at the bottom of the screen enables the user to navigate between lessons and their interactive scenes. At the micro level of the selected lesson, the user interaction is specific to the activity. A typical anticipated user interaction would expect users to begin with a dialogue, practise the pronunciation of sentences or words, develop greater comprehension of the topic with the video, build on linguistic competence with the grammar and glossary, test the newly acquired skills with exercises and games and, finally, review the progress achieved.