e-ditorials - Issue #10: Effectively using Multimedia on your web site and in your business

The Do's and Don't of Multimedia.

Don't

1. Design an entire web site in Flash or other plug in software. There is a disadvantage to using Flash to design an entire web site site because the text within a Flash piece is not currently picked up and used in the search engines. If the entire web site is running within one Flash file, the only page you would be able to use META tags and a descriptive paragraph about the company, for the search engines, would be the home page.

2. Use Intro's. There is a famous web site called "skip intro" which is all about intros that do a lot of exciting movement and very little in the way of actually communicating information. Why delay your visitor's need for immediate gratification by adding another click to their experience with a "Skip Intro" link. Useless intros often delay the site visitor's access to the information they came to the web site to see and they may leave.

3. Overuse Animation. Any animation should reinforce the goal of the business. Repeated animations on pages that are meant to inform will distract the eye from the written message on the page. Instead, have the user interact with the piece and instruct it as to when they are ready to view a moving image.

4. Underestimate the Value of Planning. Plan how a user will use your multimedia. Have your customers and potential customers give you feedback as to what would make their experience with your company even easier. Thinking the process through before you begin will give you the most rewarding results.

DO:

1. Consider Your Site Visitors. Are they there for information, entertainment or both? Would viewing a product or application in 3 dimensions with audio and interactivity encourage them to buy? A good rule of thumb is to examine the purpose of their visit and what would most enhance their experience. Don't know? Ask them.

2. Embed Flash in your web site's pages. Rather than the famous "skip intro," why not add Flash to web site pages to demonstrate a product's features or "show" how a service works.

3. Be Consistent. If a button or a color convention is used as a visual cue, keep using that standard. Make navigation unobtrusive and easy to use.

4. Provide Sound Control. If your piece has sound, always provide on and off buttons and a volume control. Also run the piece without sound and see if it still makes sense to someone watching it. Your viewer may not have speakers, may have the sound on the computer turned off, or may have a disability.

5. Design for Accessibility. Your content should be available to all users -- don't exclude those with disabilities. Test your multimedia piece with the sound on but the visuals off and vice versa. Where possible in the HTML code, use descriptive "alt" (alternate) tags; these allow your content to be interpreted by various technologies that assist the disabled.

6. Test, test, test. Have other people view your project and make "valuable" comments as to at least one thing they could do to make it better. Don't tell them what your purpose is and see if they can tell you what it is and make sure your "testers" match the demographics of your anticipated audience.

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