ITSS WebDev Guide
Adding graphics and multimedia
Graphics and multimedia can add visual interest to a site (this is Duluth's famous bridge). But like anything else in life, graphics and multimedia have a down side. We'll start with a little background and then we'll head to some pages for the down and dirty.
Changes to the Internet
The Web really brought about a change in the way information is presented on the Internet (this is a bird's eye view of the UMD campus).
Traditionally, all exchanges of information involved plain text. What I mean by plain text is the font seen on your screen is what your computer would display for any document. This allowed for fast, efficient transfer of
ideas and research. But visually it was pretty, well...
plain.
This is not a bad thing, really. Currently Instant Messaging is the most popular activity on the Internet, and in many cases it is just plain text. The true power of IM is the real-time, informal, fast way it allows people to communicate.
With the Web we may have a
visual
onslaught
and an aural onslaught as well:
The Yin and the Yang of It
Graphics and multimedia do allow for a more lively experience, but they present problems as well:
- They take longer (yawn!) to download
- Non-graphical browsers (e.g., Lynx) can't "see" them
- Users with visual or aural impairments miss the content unless taken into account
All of these issues can be resolved, but it requires some thinking and planning ahead of time.
Where do I go from here?
Follow the links below to find out how to handle this graphics and multimedia stuff.
Rev: bdr 07.06 xs