Assets

Assets can be used around a website to make it more fun and enjoyable for the user. Different assets that can be used are:

Sound: Sounds can be used in different areas and for different purposes. You could have sounds automatically playing in the background when the user opens the websites or even certain sound effects when the user clicks on a button for example. This is up to your preference and doesn’t always have to be used. Personally, I don’t like too much sound when browsing on a website as it can sometimes become irritating but in some circumstances it can make the website more fun and interactive with the user.

Text: More or less, the majority of all websites include some text. Text is an important asset as it is one of the easiest ways to interact and give information to the user. However, I believe there is a limit to how much text should be used. For example, I wouldn’t use pages of text as the user may be put off the large amount of text and may not read it, therefore I would make sure that a correct amount of text is used.

Video: Videos are a very good alternative to text or to even include as well as text as this gives the user a different method to take in information. Users may find videos more appealing and enjoyable to lots of text as they can watch and listen to the video rather than reading through lots of text, which may become boring. Personally, I like to see websites that use a good balance between text and videos as this gives the user a choice and can also make it more enjoyable.

Vector Graphics: A good example of a vector graphic that can be used on a website is the logo. Usually vector graphics are created using certain software such as Adobe Photoshop. Vector graphics are made up of using points, lines, curves and shapes. One of the main advantages of using vector graphics is that that are scalable without pixelating. This is very important, as you don’t want to insert graphics that are pixelated as this comes across as un-professional and may put off the user.

Animations: Animations can be included in a lot of places around the website such as an animated logo or banner or even a short animation when first opening the page. Animations can be created using software such as Adobe Flash and then easily put onto the website as a plugin. Having some animation on a webpage will add excitement and make it livelier for the audience.

Images: Lastly, images are important to include in a webpage in order to make it more interesting. Especially if you intent to include some text in the webpage, it is nice to refer to an image that is related to the text. It is also important to have a good optical balance (equal balance between text and images) on your website as it looks professional and also separates the text.

Limitations

Size: It is important to get the correct balance between size and quality when including certain multimedia objects in a webpage such as images and videos. If an image had a large file sized (for example, saved in a .psd format) and was put on a webpage, this could affect loading time of the webpage and also the downloading time of the image. To resolve this issue, the image can be saved in a different format such as .jpeg as this has a much lower file size but still enough quality to put on a webpage. This can also be said for videos as well, as a Full HD video will be a larger file size than a 360p size video.

Download Time: Again, the download time can depend on the size of the multimedia component as the larger the file size the longer the component will take to download. It is very important to get the correct balance of file size to quality as the user can become extremely frustrated if and image or a video is taking a while to download.

Type of Content: There are limitations to the type of content that can be displayed in a website. When inserting the content you will need to take into consideration legal and ethical constraints as the content will need to be appropriate to the target audience and that it will not offend the users. An example of this would be a website aimed at children, as content including long, complex words would not be included as they wouldn’t understand. Also, content with bad language or scenes of violence should definitely not be used, as it is very inappropriate to the target audience.

Requirement for Plug-ins: Sometimes when accessing videos and music on the Internet, certain plug-ins are required in order to access the video or music. Usually warnings such as ‘Flash Player Required’ and ‘Shockwave Protection’ are presented in which requires the user to go and download the software in order for it to work. I consider this a big limitation as users may not feel comfortable downloading certain software that they are not familiar with.

Interactivity and Control

There are several interactivities and controls that will definitely be used when creating a website; here are some examples:

Buttons: These are generally used to navigate from one page to another or could even be used as a hyperlink to link the viewer to another website, image, video etc. There are a range of buttons that can be used, from designing your own on another piece of software such as Adobe Photoshop to simply putting a hyperlink on some text. Having buttons will allow the user to navigate around the website with ease.

Events: An event is something happening within a computer programme to change its actions. The most common events are typing on a keyboard to enter data/information or just a simple click of a mouse. This will send these events to the programme running and apply the actions accordingly.

Hotspots: A hotspot can be used over a graphic object such as an image or a section of text, which will activate when the user clicks on the hotspot. Hotspots are generally invisible but users will know that they are there as the curser will change into a ‘hand’ icon. Hotspots can be used to display a picture (for example, you might have a picture as a thumbnail in which you could put a hotspot over and once clicked on, it will open a new window with the full sized image on. This will save space on your webpage and could look more professional). It can also do other functions such as play a video or be linked to another webpage. The hotspot tool itself is very similar to the Marquee tool or Polygonal Lasso tool in Adobe Photoshop. In Adobe Dreamweaver there is a Rectangle Hotspot if the object you want to hotspot is square or rectangular, an Oval Hotspot if the object is round and also a Polygon Hotspot if the object is an obscure shape.

Scripting: Scripting can be used when creating a website to show creativity and making it more appealing to the audience. An example of scripting could be inserting a YouTube video, Google Maps or even a Flash animation (Action Script) into the webpage. In order to do this, a specific code will be needed in order to placed within the coding script. Other scripting inkling JavaScript can be used such as clocks, calendars etc.

Timelines: For certain companies, including a timeline is important as it is a really good way of interacting with an audience whether it is employees, fans etc. Having a timeline on a website will allow the audience to access specific dates and events are relevant to the situation. Having it on a website will also mean that everyone that the timeline applies to can have access to it.

Slideshows: Slideshows are often used as an opening to the websites to give a brief synopsis of what the website is all about. A good example of this is Apple as they generally use a slideshows when entering the website to show new products and available software. Slideshows can also be used for educational purposes within a website to break the content up for the user.

Effects: There are hundreds of effects that can be added to your website to make it more interactive and appealing to the target audience. From simple rollover buttons to search bars or even an opening Flash animation, these are all classed as effects to make your website creative and specific to the target audience.