Appropriate Multimedia

1820 W. Webster Ave, Suite 201
Chicago, IL 60614
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Ph. 773-252-3352
Fx. 773-252-3279
Hours: 9-5 M-F

Effective Use of Multimedia on Your Website

It’s a no-brainer that multimedia on your website will at least initially attract viewer’s attention. However the question is how much razzle dazzle is appropriate? Well, that depends on the industry you’re in. . Maybe it makes sense to consult a professional multimedia production company, to give your website that special snap.

If you’re a lawyer, you probably don’t need much more multimedia on your website than a short, well crafted video describing your value to those who use your services. Then again, if you’re a hair salon, you probably want to put some sizzle into your use of multimedia to let viewers know that you’re a fun and cool place to go to and that you’ll get a contemporary cut or style.

Let’s go deeper. First, let’s define multimedia. Its very name tells you that it consists of multiple types of media combined into one presentation. It can incorporate music and sound, photos, graphics, text, video, and other audio and visual elements.

Specifically, here are some things to consider when choosing to put multimedia on your website:

It is better to have fewer bells and whistles than to overwhelm people with a visual or audio assault that will cause them to recoil. You do want to keep things interesting and exciting, and encourage the visitor to your website to want to learn more about you.
See what others in your industry are doing. Aside from giving you ideas that you can incorporate for your purposes, you’ll get an idea of industry standards. This will help you decide what’s appropriate in terms of content, length, intensity, and style.
Unless you’re a trained multimedia producer, use an expert. The money you save by doing it yourself will be a pittance compared to the money you’ll earn by having first-rate multimedia produced and added to your website by a professional.
Keep it short. Just as you’d rather get the benefits of this article in 5 seconds rather than 5 minutes, visitors to your website want to get your message as quickly as possible. So hit them with your best shot(s) immediately and succinctly.
A splash page is a multimedia presentation that generally plays automatically when someone comes to your site. After the splash page is done, the visitor is generally brought to the home page. The good thing about a splash page is that it immediately tells the visitor something you want them to know. It can get them excited and motivated to learn more about your company or service. The potentially bad thing about a splash page is that unless you give people the option to stop it from automatically playing, it will play every time a person visits your site. This can be very obnoxious, no matter how cool your splash page may be.
If you decide to go with a splash page, make sure it’s no more than 5-8 seconds long.
Give people an opportunity to disable your splash page, so they don’t have to waste 5-8 seconds of their life waiting for something they have already seen to play out.
As long as we’re talking about splash pages, another potential negative is that a splash page can be a search engine ‘killer’ that can hurt your website ranking. However you can try a hybrid approach where you can have lots of animation, but it’s built into the page and doesn’t precede the site.

There are many other things to consider in designing multimedia for your website, but this should be a good start.