A multimedia kiosk authoring system for use in developing and maintaining
user interface screens for multimedia kiosk systems. The authoring system
enables the user interface for each individual kiosk to be customized
quickly and easily within wide limits of variation, yet subject to
constraints adhering the resulting interface to good standards of
aesthetics and user friendliness. The system may be used to provide custom
interfaces expeditiously even for hundreds of kiosks presenting
information from numerous independent information sources. The authoring
system uses the methods of object oriented programming to define
specialized object classes for instantiation on individual kiosk interface
screens subject to pre-defined limitations on variability. Links are
provided to an appropriate database for multimedia presentations on an
interface screen of content bearing information from the information
providers.