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Boyer publishes thesis findings analyzing retention and satisfaction of passive and interactive multimedia

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I am thrilled to announce that I recently completed my master’s thesis for the Master’s of Science in Information Science portion of my MSIS/MBA dual degree at UNC Chapel Hill. Over the past eight months I read prior research, crafted a research proposal, and carried out a small-scale qualitative study analyzing twelve multimedia presentations.

My aim was to determine whether or not there were significant differences in short-term retention rates and satisfaction levels between consumers of passive versus interactive multimedia. Although my data only suggested a slight difference in retention rates between the two, users reported noticeably higher satisfaction levels after viewing interactive presentations.

I strongly believe my findings prove the need for a larger, more controlled study, so I decided to publish my study at MultimediaThesis.com for others to peruse and hopefully build upon.

While numerous researchers have analyzed differences between print and online versions of content, or between HTML and Flash content (.pdf), I did not come across any research that directly compared passive and interactive multimedia.

Initially my plan was to conduct a large-scale quantitative study using eye tracking equipment, but I soon realized the difficulty in attempting such a complex proposal for my first research study. Therefore, I narrowed my scope and carried out a qualitative study with 10 subjects to gauge whether a more advanced study on this topic would be a worthwhile investment for others. For the researchers out there, feel free to browse through my methodology to learn more about how I designed the study.

I admit the difficulty in attempting to directly compare multimedia formats of drastically different content. I spent considerable time selecting my test stimuli, and honestly looking back I would have changed several of them due to the difficulty in assessing retention. I tried to select different types of multimedia from numerous organizations and then organize them according to my proposed interactivity continuum.

Passive:
P1: The Roanoke Times: Warrior for the elderly (text and photos)
P2: BBC: British Doctor returns from Haiti (audio and text)
P3: FlowingPrints: World progress report (graphic and text)
P4: La Times: Their home base (audio and photo and text)
P5: MediaStorm: Global governance monitor oceans (audio, still and moving photo) * Only tested video, not entire site
P6: UNC: The truth about energy (motion graphics, text and audio) * Only tested video above fold, not entire site

Interactive:
I1: NPR: Traveling down the Amazon road (photo, text and audio) * Only tested “The Road” slide show, not entire site
I2: USA Today: Presidential approval tracker (photo, graphics and text)
I3: Washington Post: Unemployment rate by county (graphics, map, and text)
I4: The Boston Globe: New York plane crash (graphics, map, photo, 3D and text)
I5: MSNBC: Battle of the bags (video, text, audio, photos, and user-submission tools)
I6: New York Times: Gauging your distraction (text, graphics, user-submission tools, and virtual simulation game)

Somewhat surprisingly, The Roanoke Times’ “Warrior for the elderly” text and photo story (passive) and The Boston Globe’s “New York plane crash” step graphic (interactive) garnered the best retention scores, while LA Times’ “Their home base” audio slide show (passive) and The Boston Globe’s “New York plane crash” step graphic (interactive) received the highest satisfaction levels.

On the other end of the spectrum, the BBC podcast (passive) and USA Today’s Presidential approval tracker graphic (interactive) received the worst retention rates, and The Roanoke Times’ “Warrior for the elderly” text and photo story (passive) and The New York Times’ “Gauging your distraction” received the worst satisfaction levels.

On that note, I noticed drastically different satisfaction levels on The New York Times’ simulation game, with one subject (a self-described introvert) giving it the lowest satisfaction score of all those recorded, two subjects ranking it as neutral, and the fourth subject (a self-described extrovert) giving it one of the highest satisfaction scores.

These findings aligned with Liu and Shrum’s 2002 study, “What is interactivity and is it always such a good thing? Implications of definition, person, and situation for the influence of interactivity on advertising effectiveness,” in that a user’s personality largely impacts his or her perceived satisfaction of an interactive presentation.

While none of my data is conclusive since I did not incorporate enough subjects to attain statistical significance, I would encourage everyone to check out my literature review where I compiled findings from more than 15 studies on multimedia in the fields of journalism, academia, advertising and marketing. I argued the need for a consistent definition of both “multimedia” and “interactivity” after reading countless versions across the different professional sectors, and I concluded with what I believe to be the most complete definitions of each:

Defining Multimedia: any presentation that utilizes multiple formats in either one or multiple sensory modalities (Brunye, Taylor, Rapp, and Spiro, 2007)
Defining Interactivity: “the degree to which two or more communication parties can act on each other, on the communication method, and on the messages and the degree to which such influences are synchronized” (Liu and Shrum, 2002, p.54)

Don’t agree that these are the most accurate definitions? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

I also included my references so that you can easily find a study that I referenced if you would like to read it in its entirety.

As I note in my acknowledgments, I sincerely thank UNC professors Laura Ruel, Diane Kelly and Brad Hemminger for helping me this past year to get the inspiration, knowledge, and resources necessary to complete this study.

I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback on my study, thoughts for potential expansion, and constructive dialogue regarding the topic of my research. By improving our understanding of how users interact with our content, we can develop more effective multimedia presentations so I sincerely hope that someone takes the premise of my study and runs with it!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Help needed determining master’s thesis topic
• Boyer submits 2010 video application for Nicholas Kristof’s “Win a Trip” contest
• II founder Tracy Boyer to join UNC’s 2012 MBA class

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