Evaluating Web Sites:
Graphics, Video, and Audio
Add Value
Higher quality web sites will use graphics, video, and audio with caution. And when graphics, video, and audio are used, they will add something valuable to the web site.
"Music is cool" is not adequate justification for adding an audio file to a web site. "It's my favorite picture" is not an acceptable rationale for adding a graphic. "Because I can" is not a good reason to add a video.
Simply to make your web have music because you can is not sufficient. You need to be able to answer the question, "What does this audio or graphic or video add for my audience?"
Example 1: Appropriate Use of Audio Files
Great Russian Voices is a web site highlights "some of the great opera singers of the former Soviet Union." Short samples of various singers can be downloaded. However, even though the web site promotes Russian opera, audio files do not open automatically once a visitor enters the site.
Example 2: Appropriate Use of Video Files
The Louisiana Folklife Program provides dance video clips on their web site. Because the web design considered the equipment needs of the intended audience, each clip is offered in three different formats: real video, quick time, and windows media.
Example 3: Appropriate Use of Graphics
The home page for the Middle East Institute incorporates a map of the region. The graphic visually shows the geographic region in which the institute is interested. The words "Middle East Institute" and a logo are written in red over the map. Other pages on the web site use a red border on the top of the page with "Middle East Institute" and the logo written in white. It is simple and crisp.
Also of interest on this page is an interactive map of the Middle East. A list of countries is listed next to the map. When you put the cursor on the name of a country, that country turns red on the map. The graphic is simple, effective, and appropriate.
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