Using Multimedia

What is Multimedia?

• (hyper)Text
• Graphics
• Photographs
• Animation
• Audio
• Video

Why use multimedia?

• Greater detail and depth
  • The American Memory page
  • The Treasures of the Czars
• Non-linear navigation
• Direct access to specific content
• Cross-references
• Multiple representation of the same information
• Can provide a more informal presentation of the information

The Elements...

Text...

Graphics...

We know that...

• Use of graphics is important, but use the file types supported by all browsers on all platforms.
• Studies say that 20 seconds is the upper limit of how long you can make users wait before they become frustrated. So, the use of interlaced gifs, and the use of low resolution/high resolution (within Netscape) is suggested so the user has something on his screen in a short period of time.

Colors: some findings...

• Color usage is improtant.
• Older subjects (over thirty) react much more strongly to color and rate it higher when presented with choices.
• Women responded to colors and graphic presentation with a greater degree of linking/nonliking than males.
• Women also demonstrated a significantly greater preference for the color violet than did their male counterparts. They also registered a strong dislike for the color brown.
• Reds and blues are preferred over all other colors with red being the favorite. Subjects wanted reds to be highly saturated, whil accepting various levels of saturation for blue.
• Red and green combinations can be uncomfortable...the edges seem to shimmer.
• Blue and red focus on different parts of the retina, so a combination of these to can make text and graphics appear to be jumping
• Bright colors project energy and excitement
• Pastels are delicate
• Grayed colors are reserved and sophisticated
• Muddy brown colors are warmer and more casual
• Warm colors appear closer, and cool colors recede

Photographs

Animations

Video

Interface Design

Interface considers how the users will use thier senses to interact with the information. A look at an interesting interface in it's prototype form, and as it appears online.

Information Design (navigation)

The most important aspects when creating a navigational structure are:

1. Where am I?
2. How did I get here?
3. Where can I go from here?

Where do you start?

Multimedia team includes:

1. Instructional designer
2. Content expert
3. Visual designer
4. Illustrator and/or photograper
5. Video and/or audio producer
6. Author
7. Project manager

Steps for producing a project...

1. Clear definiton of the goal
2. Identify audience
3. Content design
   • What elements are available?
   • Use file standard (web) file types
4. Flowcharts (flexible)
5. Graphic design
   • Don't let the graphics get in the way before you have the content established
6. Storyboard (flexible)
   • Outline combination of text and other media elements
7. Testing

Considerations for multimedia projects

• Clear indications for links and multimeida elements: What do you want the user to walk away with after using the program?
• Possible on-line glossary
• Links to other related documents
• Meaningful use of audio and video clips
• Effective use of graphics, photographs and animations
• Mechanism for feedback

Challenges

• Are we using hypermedia in trivial ways?
• Is it too easy to get wrapped up in the technology?
• Can flexiblity become a liability?
• Will unguided browsing allow a user to get lost?
• Are links really tangles?
• Is the technolgoy intimidating?
• Has the glitz overshadowd the importance of the content?

What are the special considerations for multimedia on the web?

• Bandwidth
• Use of standard file types
• Keep browser differences in mind (is creativity limited?)
• How important is continuity in the project when considering the number and content outside links?