The multi-media design of this story is a nice complement to its content. The page is clean and well laid-out. It is not too busy, and very easy to navigate.
From the main page, you click on the story. From the story page you click on any of five thumbnails. The thumbnails are not presented in layout with any one having more importance than another. They are arranged staggered, with teasers. Each thumbnail leads to a multi-media segment that is a blend of audio, video, and slide-show.
The story is about the non-teachers who make a difference in education. The story segments are split between five of these people: the lunch-lady, lot-monitor, secretary, security, and bus driver.
I think this multi-media layout fits nicely with the story because the story tells of five equally important people playing important roles in primary education. It was interesting, but not too distracting from the content.
Overall, I think the multi-media helped the story because it split the information up so that the viewer could digest each aspect of it clearly and with focus. Had it been all jumbled together in one video, it would have been choppy and difficult to follow. The layout was easy to navigate. The links worked well, the video uploaded quickly and did not skip. It was just interactive enough to tell the story and nothing more. However it might have been interesting to have some links to information about those positions, stats on the impact non-teachers have in the school system, or other interesting figures or stories; maybe links to the schools that were featured, or other things that those persons are doing.
At first, I really liked this story. They layout give three click-through options that are not equally weighted on the page. It entices the viewer to click on the "How it happened" option first. That one has a short teaser and an interesting photograph. The other two options were off to the right in a vertical banner: "Read Michael Laughlin's first person account" was at the top and "See more photo's from Michael Laughlin's journey back to Haiti" was below it.
The "How it happened" option navigates you to a 3-D step-by-step layout of the street where the event occurred. It uses an arrow to mark the path of the Sun-Sentinel photographer who was involved. As you advance to each point, the arrow moves, the description appears on the left narrating the events, and the diagram has photo points which you can click on to view photos taken of those spots during or right after the event. Each photo has a brief description. There is a return button which will navigate you back to where you left off in the story. The story was very interesting and the layout of this click-through definitely aided in describing the events.
When I finished the main story, I tried to click "Read Michael Laughlin's first person account," but the page is not working. I navigated back and opted for "See more photo's from Michael Laughlin's journey back to Haiti," but that page didn't work either.
It was disappointing to not get a more in-depth story, but at least I did get the basic 5 W's and how answered.
Had all of the pages been working, I suspect that I would have been really pleased with the overall effect. This is the downside to multi-media journalism--page failure which can limit the audience's clarity on the story. However, it could also be an upside, because since the story is broken up between several pages, it has a higher chance of at least one working. If it had been only a one-page story and not worked, then the viewer would have missed it all.
Overall, the layout added to the story because it provided a perspective on the event that would not have been possible with text or photos alone. The story layout was very interactive, clean and easy to navigate. It only failed on the links.
No comments:
Post a Comment