A Format to design Narrative Multimedia Applications for Cultural Heritage Communication

In this paper we introduce the "Instant MultiMedia" (IMM) approach to ICT-based communication. IMM is characterized for being quick (30 days to deliver the application) and low cost (5,000 US dollars for a medium-sized applications). It is therefore a suitable solution in a number of occasions: when a sudden communication need arises, in the case of small institutions with scarce resources, when niche target and content are to be addressed etc. We will introduce a concrete case-study, "Enigma Helvetia tales", a multimedia (text, images, audios) and multichannel (web, CD-rom, podcast) application that was developed in spring 2008 in the occasion of an art exhibition held in Lugano (CH). An extensive user study -- involving more than 200 users -- proved the efficacy of the approach in terms of satisfaction, better understanding of content, knowledge retention and enhanced curiosity towards the event.