The Advantages of Web Video

In my earlier blogs, I wrote about the useful additions of images. A picture is (sometimes) worth a thousand words. But of course, the picture has to be a good one.

The same with web video. Often, a a video can interest a reader to further investigate what else is available on the website.

Some helpful ways to use videos are:

• Videos to show short samples of the organizations activities.

This of often used to introduce the reader with the website writers and contributers. It also provides information on the main projects and involvements of the website's members. It is a video version of a photo gallery.

Often, movie trailers for film festivals and introduction to box office shows can be used in these introductions.

These videos tend to be short, usually 3o seconds-3 minutes long.

The Hot Docs film festival for documentary films has its trailers running as short as 30 seconds.

They have uploaded all their trailers on Youtube. You can also watch the trailers on their website with Flash Video.

• Videos presenting information and direction.

These videos tend to be medium length - usually 5-10 minutes long.

Martha Stewart's website has a whole link of videos where she demonstrates anything from flag folding to cooking chicken dishes.

This information tends to be complete, from beginning to end.

Martha's videos were done in Flash Video.

• Videos for complete speeches or interviews.

The CBC News Sunday often has full interviews posted on their website.

Here is an example of an interview on the 2008 Olympics athletes uniform. The interview is posted using Media Player.

These videos tend to be long, from 1/2 hour to one hour long.

Although the size of the video (1/2 an hour or 30 seconds) is no longer an issue in today's web technology, it is still always important to keep the size down to a bare minimum. The larger (the longer) the video, the more space you will need to store it. And why use up space unnecessarily.

So, like everything else about websites, editing is a very important step to keep your own website functioning well. The smaller the video size the better. Of course, that doesn't mean affecting the quality of your video. If a 1/2-hour is really necessary, then keep the video that long.

There are many ways to install video into your website; Real video, Media Player, Youtube and Flash Video are some of the options.

To decide on which one to use, it is best to discuss the options with your website designer.

Your Own Image Libarary

Many sites want to promote their images without necessarily selling anything. Usually, the reason for their site is to inform people about their collections. This type of website slightly differs from a site whose main function is to promote and eventually to attract a market.

Online libraries, or galleries have to carefully display their images, and provide pertinent information on their images.

Here are some ways to do this.

• Start with clear thumbnails, which can be clicked to view an enlarged version of the image

• When making thumbnails, make sure that the smaller images are clearly visible, so that they direct the viewer to the enlarged version.


• The thumbnails should really include the whole image, rather than a cropped section, to make it easier to identify what the image is.


• A long, scrollable thumbnails page is a good idea whenever possible, since viewers often don't want to click to the next page just to get another list of thumbnail images.


• A good number of thumbnails to have per page is between 20 and 40.


• The enlarged image of the thumbnail can open up in a new window or a new page. Either way, the viewer will have to click the new window closed, or link back to the original thumbnail page.


• If you're going to open a new window, make sure it is large enough to fit the image and the text, and your viewer doesn't have to scroll up or down to find all the information.
  


• I tend to prefer linking the larger image onto another page. That way, I can write as much as I want when describing the image.

Online galleries and image libraries are a good way to introduce your collection of images, whether for non-profit reasons, for a blog, or as a virtual gallery/library.

Here are some good examples which use online galleries using the list I've described above.

• Armenian miniature illustrated manuscripts: This site displaying 20 thumbnails per page, each one clearly visible. The large version opens into a new page.


• Virtual Museum of Canada featuring here A.J. Casson's work: Again with clearly identifiable thumbnails. The larger version opens into a new window. This window is a little cumbersome, since it is scrollable, and you have to adjust the size to see all the image.


• The Metropolitan Museum of Art with a page on Christian artworks in Ethiopia: Notice how the main page has extensive writing with cropped off thumbnails (not recommended.) But each thumbnail opens to another page of a larger version. You can even enlarge the image more by opening it in a new window. Text is a very important part of this web museum, which is why they've opted to have the image open primarily in a new page, rather than a new window.