Illustrations or documents are said to be interactive when the user can click on specific areas of the screen to initiate an action himself. This could involve being switched to another page of a spare parts catalog, for example, or interrogating a central computer to determine whether a certain part is still in stock. The possibilities for actions are extremely numerous and diverse and are geared very closely to the specific needs of the enterprise in question.

In all cases, however, the area the user clicks needs to be identified unambiguously. To trigger a very specific action, he needs to click within a precisely defined area. This area of the illustration is known as a hotspot. If the user clicks outside this area nothing will happen.

This area must be defined exactly when the illustration is created to ensure that the user can later execute the precise action he has in mind.