Multimedia Tools

When creating a blog or website, you can greatly enhance your reader's experience by incorporating multimedia tools.  These tools allow the reader to interact with your content, which may increase the amount of time they spend reading your content.  It could be as simple as adding a few images to your work.  Multimedia tools also enhance the messaging that you are trying to convey.  For example, in Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, the creator uses slide shows on a sidebar to show additional photos of the people mentioned in the story.  In this instance, the slideshows are enhancing the story by allowing the reader to feel as if they are getting to know the person.  Some photos include childhood photos, making the reader feel as if they have known these people for a long time.  It also allows the creator to continue on with their story without having to stop and explain some of the information that can be conveyed in the slideshow and accompanying captions.

Also in Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, the creator has used 360 degree, rotating 3D maps. Not only are they interesting to the reader, but they allow the reader to comprehend distance between different areas mentioned in the content of the article.  In this case, the maps are not providing new information, but helping the reader to fully comprehend information that has already been stated.

Certain use of multimedia tools are more effective than others.  In the above examples, the maps might be more useful than the slideshows.  The interactive maps play as soon as your mouse scrolls over them.  The slideshows require the reader to click on them (both to open the slideshow and to progress through the slideshow).  By animating the map as soon as they scroll over it, you require no additional action by the reader and greatly increase the chances that the reader will consume your multimedia choice.  

Other examples:

• Museum of Fine Arts Boston scrolls through a series of four images on their home page.  For each image, the creator also spans the image to show a larger piece.  This almost gives the viewer the impression that they are in the museum and viewing the pieces.
• National Geographic uses photos to show individual constellations and their relation to other constellations.  This helps readers understand what they are looking for in the night sky and where to find it.
• She's Got Flavor is a cooking blog that enhances some of the author's messaging with the use of video.  For some, it is much easier to follow a video of how to cook than it is to read a recipe.

These examples are just some of the ways that you can enhance your blog or website through the use of multimedia tools.