Multimedia Web Design Professor Frank

Multimedia Combine text, graphics, sounds, and moving images in meaningful ways Use stable technology

Considerations Use multimedia purposefully Don’t distract from content by using flashy “eye candy” Technical limitations Needs of users with disabilities

Enhancing Content

Web Multimedia Strategies Tailor your content for web delivery!

Audio Digital audio = efficient means of information delivery Record it right the first time

Slide Shows Synchronize audio with still images Higher image quality and size due to more efficient data compression than video

Video Most challenging multimedia content Size - one second of uncompressed, full- quality video requires approximately 27 megabytes of disk storage space Scaling and compression can render material useless

Video Considerations Shoot original video Shoot close-ups Shoot against a simple monochromatic background Use tripod Avoid zooming and panning Editing – favor hard cuts between shots

Animation Value of web animation is questionable – Disruptive to user – users lose site message – Flash intro – annoying for users Animation can be useful if used wisely

Text Alternatives QuickTime – creates several different versions of a movie, each catered to different connection speeds Text transcriptions for videos – accessible, indexable by search engines Text captions synchronized to videos Still images synchronized to audio

Captions

Preparing Multimedia Prepare files that are small enough to be accessible to the broadest possible audience

Processing Aim for files that can be managed by average network connection and desktop machine of your target audience Reduce data rate through downsampling and compression

Delivery Streaming - sends data to the desktop continuously but does not download the entire file Downloading - media is stored on the client machine in memory or on viewer’s hard drive

Design and Multimedia Inform your users – Menu page – quick loading, link heavy – Use previews and descriptive info – Include video running time and file size

Inform Your Users

Design and Multimedia Provide controls – Give users control over sound and display (ie media controller bar) – Avoid auto play or looping – Provide options for using descriptive text

Design and Multimedia Support keyboard interaction – Not all users choose mice; some use keyboard commands – For basic media playback – activate play and pause buttons, use arrows for volume control

Design and Multimedia Offer choice – There are no established standards for multimedia formats; best approach is to provide a range of choices – Providing all options does not require much additional effort on the part of the designer and allows users to choose the option that suits them best

Offer Choice