Multimedia communication design is a form of complex problem-solving. It requires heuristics which take into account addressees’ cognitive abilities and prior knowledge, the complexity of the subject matter, processing conditions, time limits, and other factors. Multimedia designers have to be aware of the asymmetry between texts and pictures in terms of representational principles and communication functions, including the fact that texts and pictures compensate for their inherent ambiguities by reciprocal disambiguation. Designers have to be further aware that multimedia comprehension starts with initial mental model construction primarily guided by the text, which is then followed by adaptive mental model specification primarily guided by the picture for specific task requirements. Text design should enable smooth continuous coherence formation within the right text modality. Picture design should enable scaffolding for mental model construction and visualize the essential structure of a subject matter with regard to future tasks. Above all, multimedia design needs to adequately synchronize the different comprehension processes.

In this chapter, I propose three distinct purposes of multiple representations and suggest that these lead to different design principles and learning activities. Multiple representations can play a complementary role when learners exploit differences in their form and content by switching between and selecting the appropriate representation for the task at hand. Constraining benefits are achieved when learners can profit from the support of a familiar representation to understand a new and complex representation. Finally, if learners abstract across multiple representations, they can construct a deeper understanding of the nature of the representations and the domain they represent. This chapter updates a review of studies that have used multiple representations for these purposes and identifies some of the circumstances that influence the effectiveness of using multiple representations in these ways.