Advice & inspiration

Multimedia investment checklist

This post is also available in Spanish

I have been reading oodles of research papers lately in preparation for my master’s project. One article in particular by Laura Ruel and Nora Paul caught my attention because it included a checklist at the end to determine whether or not it is worth investing in multimedia for a particular story. Included below is the checklist they created, as well as some of their findings from their 2007 DiSEL (Digital Story Effects Lab) study.

I encourage you to read the full article, “Multimedia storytelling: when is it worth it?” at Online Journalism Review.

“Should we present this story as an interactive?

Before undertaking any large story project be sure to ask:

• Who is the target audience for this story?
• What do we hope to accomplish in telling this story to them?

Then use this decision-tool to see which approach to storytelling is best supported by the research in these studies:

1. Does the story concern elaborate or unfamiliar processes / procedures?
• Yes – 1 point
• No – no points
2. Is the level of interest in the topic high enough that people would be willing to figure out story navigation?
• Yes – 1 point
• No – no points
3. Does the story have value beyond the first few weeks? Is it likely to be a topic in the news again?
• Yes – 1 point
• No – no points
4. Is entertaining the audience more important than simply informing?
• Yes – 1 point
• No – no points
5. Is it important that the audience be able to recall specific facts from the story?
• Yes – no points
• No – 1 point
6. If the story is told in separate components, is it essential that all the components be viewed by the audience?
• Yes – no points
• No – 1 point
7. Do you hope the audience recalls where they saw the information?
• Yes – 1 point
• No – no points

If you get five or more points, then you should strongly consider an interactive story approach.

Findings behind the questions …

Interactive presentations work best when you want users to …

• spend more time with the presentation;
• describe the experience as “enjoyable;”
• recall more of the information;
• recall your brand;
• feel entertained.

Static presentations work best when you want users to …

• “click to” all of the presentation’s materials;
• preceive the site navigation as easy.

Either form is equally effective if you want to …

• increase the likelihood a user would return to the site.”

Other posts that might interest you:

• IJNET’s “Fundamentals of Multimedia Storytelling” series a must-read
• Need a multimedia copy editor? Look no further …
• “Datavisualization.ch Inside” provides postmortems of information visualization projects

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