What type of information is important to understand before using audio/video on your web site?
It is important to know that all the technologies that have successfully managed video and audio over the internet use packet streaming. All video-streaming systems perform buffering. And, the four companies dictating what can be done with video are, Microsoft, Apple, Macromedia (purchased by Adobe) and RealNetworks.
One web site that contains audio/video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ “Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports, Politics, Travel, Science, Technology, Local, US & World News - msnbc.com”
This is a 24-hour news channel featuring stories and video from NBC News, and The New York Times, Newsweek and the Washington Post. When watching video http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26523861#26523861 you are able to select your next video even as you are watching another video. The videos will also continuously play through the video catalogue.
The benefit of audio/video and its use for information for the clients and the users? The original concept of this website and company was to have video on the web related to the stories on cable t.v. This continues to be the concept and with new technologies (silverlight) the clarity and capabilities are increasing. This company succeeds due to the audio/video content and the clients and users expect quality a/v content.
To determine what information is important for interactive forms you must understand the goal of the form. What is the information needed? Also, what information do you want the user to know? Depending on the types of information you will have the user submit will determine the fields you will use in the form.
The basic essentials are these: For text and numeric data you will use text and combo boxes. If you provide the information for the user to select, you may choose from radio buttons, lists, or combo boxes. Of course, you may want the user to select multiple options. The use of check boxes or list boxes will work nicely for multiple options. The use of buttons is a no-brainer. Whether it is text or looks like a button, you will use buttons to interact with the user to open files, play sound, movies, or submitting or clearing form data.
Have you thought about security and/or validation? You might consider using digital signature to verify the user’s identity and form validation is the process of checking a form’s values against a standard of expected values. It is a way to proofread or spell check what your user has entered as input. An example would be an expected 9 number combination and the user entered an email address. This would return as invalid content. Typically checked are empty fields, valid and well formed email addresses, dates, and the aforementioned a number entered in a text expected field (or vice-verse). If the tested field contains the expected input then the result is returned true and the form data is expected to be good data. It is important to use validation for online forms to add an extra bit of reliability and save time by ensuring a certain level of quality.
Control is what most expect when navigating the web. Users of menus should feel like they know where they are and where they’re going to go. Interactive websites benefit from menus and navigation by allowing the user to feel confident they are at the right location and where to go next. Menus and navigation allow the user to browse in sequence, randomness or in circles and still have a sense they are within the same domain.
Menus and navigation serve beneficial to the user by allowing the user to initially land on any page and be able to continue without breaking stride. Too often I have landed on a page and wondered how I could manipulate the URL in the address bar to get to another page within the same domain. In this scenario a clear menu structure would serve very beneficial. http://amazon.com is a fine example as well as my reference, webstyleguide.com.
The use of animation can make your website outstanding or ridiculous. Let’s focus on the outstanding. Your website might be the only contact or the initial contact of your perspective clients and visitors. You better make an impact, a positive impact.
What is my call to action? What the heck am I supposed to do? A website that immediately urges the user to the action you desire them to take is going to stand out from the rest. Quality animation can help you with user-friendly interactivity that keeps them coming back.
Humans naturally recognize differences and amplify attention to those changes in their environment. Animation is an asset when used to bring a logo to life, even briefly, and when adding a bit of sparkle to improve the clarity of an active button.
Hans Rosling in California on statistics and using animation to make an impact of his presentation and speech. Go to minute 4:00 to see the animation being used.
I mentioned in my last post that the user should be able to get through the website and know what’s going on. A lot of animation can be a distraction and could cause the user to leave your site without completing the task you attracted the user there in the first place. The site should be as simple as possible to navigate. I read somewhere before that each page should look as if it were and serve as a possible landing page. I know I’ve often landed on something other than the “home” page and wondered how to get “home” for the substance and contact information. I really don’t like the feeling that the “contact” information is hidden from me. Maybe, a search engine feature is not such a bad idea, even for our 5 page project.
Without a clear purpose, how can a project be streamlined for success?
Organizational framework may call for a storyboard to help resolve a lot of confusion. A storyboard may just be what’s prescribed for a large project with different contributing divisions. Storyboards offer a visual identity for the script writers, developers, graphic artists, technical editors, and of course the client. With a visual reference for everyone to point to, omissions are more likely to be recognized and pointed out. With the use of a document control system, all users will be able to modify and add to the storyboard when required. Or, the users will be able to reference the storyboard to answer development questions. Without a visual reference, everyone could assume to be in agreement and find out later each had something different in mind. Again, saving time and money and maybe saving a few tears also.
