Multimedia has the potential to produce immersive, rich and creative websites. The process of designing and developing a multimedia site can have some significant differences to that of a static HTML site - the variety of media on offer can broaden the design canvas.
For example, similar to a movie, sound effects and music can dramatically improve the impact of a film. The same can be said for web elements like navigation, rollover effects and the overall user experience.
There can be a tendency to overcomplicate or over-design elements, thus overwhelming the user. It is important to balance the interactive elements with the complexity of the design to better appeal to the target audience.
From our perspective however, portraying the whole user experience can be difficult to adequately convey to the client. As the designs for the site will be initially mocked up as static pages, the client may be restricted by this and find it difficult to see the big picture, with all its wooshy bits! The best method to overcome this is to produce a storyboard of the user experience to demonstrate the multimedia designers/developers ideas in as much detail as possible. Similar real-life examples can also be given to help the client visualise how the site will work.
Being both a developer and designer allows me to carefully balance visually rich sites while still anticipating any potential development issues. This process aids in a much smoother project life cycle and some great looking sites!
Richard Fenn
Multimedia Designer
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