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Poor
Design Threatens Multimedia Acceptance
By Bill Warner
We
haven't seen much multimedia yet. I know, I know, there are some
300 million pages on the Web and a steady stream of CD-ROMs coming
out every day. On the Web, we can find sites that treat every subject
and situation imaginable and that employ flying, exploding, flaming,
continuously morphing and ordinary text, animated banner ads, graphics
ranging from the crudely simple to the complexly crude, sometimes
as many as five to eight or more typefaces on a single page, sounds
ranging from barnyard and war noises to heavy machinery and excerpts
from operatic arias, and other allegedly multimedia features too
numerous to mention.
But only in the rarest cases should we regard what we're being provided
as multimedia. Multimedia means that text, images (still or moving
illustrations, diagrams, photographs or video), and even sound are
used in some combination to create a meaning or an experience beyond
that conveyed by the sum of the combined elements. With true multimedia,
the viewer/observer/reader/participant experiences a sort of levitating
synergy, a lifting to a higher level or a movement into some other
frame of reference that is not conveyed by these elements when used
in a mechanical or thoughtless manner.
Multimedia has been around since humans became smart enough to play
an instrument and sing, chant, or recite heroic or religious poetry
at the same time. Written text came later, as did Bob Dylan. You've
also seen multimedia in medieval rubrics and illuminated manuscripts,
in the illuminated manuscripts of William Blake (the English romantic
poet/engraver), and in Lawrence Sterne's novel "Tristram Shandy"
(where typography-we're talking the 18th century here, pardner-is
being used as a visual element to create and complement meaning
beyond that conveyed by the text alone). And let us not forget what
is probably the most written-about single mark of punctuation in
the English language, the period-the still center-that comes between
the end of the major section of James Joyce's "Ulysses"
and Molly Bloom's concluding soliloquy.
Remove that single visual element and you've destroyed much of the
meaning of Joyce's novel. More recently, MYST was a hugely popular
game on CD-ROM because it embodied a true multimedia experience.
Today,
with our emerging information technology, we're poised on the brink
of a new age in multimedia. But we aren't there yet. And we won't
get there, either, unless we quickly find Web page designers who
understand what is being called information architecture. In short,
this term means that the designer should use only those design elements
actually needed to attract and retain, then entertain, inform, educate,
thrill, titillate, challenge, or whatever the viewer/observer. The
design elements should facilitate the visitor's search for information
or somehow enhance the experience at the site or in the game. With
many Web sites, however, fonts, images and special effects are used
with little or no thought to how they contribute to the overall
effectiveness of the pages at the site. The designer or developer
is in effect captivated by the tools she has in the toolkit and
pays little attention to the design of the experience for the site
visitor. The result is a bag of tricks performed to no purpose.
As
an example, let me describe a commercial for IBM information services
that is currently running on network television. Two men, one a
young Web site designer, the other a client (either in-house or
from outside the company), are reviewing the designer's work on
the company's Web site. The designer, very upbeat and pleased with
his work, tells the other man that he can have the company logo
one of two ways: either with flaming text, or as a spinning logo.
The "client" looks at him and asks (I'm paraphrasing here),
"You know what would be really neat? A system where our customers
could tap into our Web site, learn about our products and services
and prices, enter their orders, and have the company's order processing
and other systems ship the order, bill the customer and then track
everything seamlessly from the customer's point of view. That would
be really neat." Says the designer, crestfallen, "I don't
know how to do that." Dissolve to the IBM logo screen with
voiceover message, and then to black.
Now,
I'm not suggesting that multimedia technology has to be used for
commercial purposes to be effective, or that the client's vision
of customer access in the commercial I've just described above is
the best use of multimedia. But I am saying that any use of multimedia
should be based on a clear sense of purpose, and that the various
media and elements employed should be used in concert to achieve
that purpose. These principles underlie good games just as they
inform effective commercial uses of the Web.
Usually,
less is more where communication and design are concerned. So, a
well-designed, easy-to-navigate
Web site that uses only text and static images, but which meets
its objectives with its target audience, is far more effective than
those sites where every visual trick in the book is on display.
The tricks distract the visitor and keep her from finding what she
came to the site for in the first place. When all-too-eager designers
add special effects for the sole purpose of turning the Web site
into a multimedia extravaganza, everybody loses.
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