Multimedia

Our perception of reality in the 21st century is mediated by multimedia. Rarely an hour goes by without some interaction with a multimedia website, whether we are looking to be entertained, informed, to shop or engage in social activities. According to the University of Delaware, multimedia can be defined as 'the use of a computer to present and combine text, graphics, audio, and video with links and tools that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate.' In the context of multimedia sound can be used as music, effects or voice in a video, on a website or attached to an image. Images form part of multimedia and can include everything from family photos to graphic designs. Video is an increasingly prevalent and important aspect of multimedia and can encompass shows uploaded to YouTube, video snippets on TikTock or product demonstration videos on Amazon. 

Websites that use multimedia

1 Spotify

Spotify is a music streaming website with millions of tracks where you can find pretty much everything from Louis Armstrong's Hot Five recordings from the 1920s to 2020's electronica such as Mighty Lord Deathman and everything in between, including S Club & and The Wombles.  The site also offers access to thousands of spoken word podcasts. While the audio content is the website's main purpose, Spotify uses a number of multimedia elements to deliver its user experience. Each artist, album, single or podcast is illustrated with an image; a photographic portrait of a musical artist or podcaster, a reproduction of the cover art of an album or single. The site also employs graphic design elements including the brand logo, navigational icons (e.g. a line drawing of a house for Home) and symbols (a heart for liked songs). Text is used not just for artist names and album, song and podcast titles but also artist biographies. Users can also interact with the site and input their own images and text by building playlists of songs and giving them titles and illustrating them with uploaded images.  Video is also incorporated into the site, for example, the Joe Rogan Experience podcast has a 52 second video trailer for the audio podcast series. The overall effect of the multimedia aspects of Spotify is to encourage the user to keep streaming audio from the site. The use of icons and images make the site not just visually appealing but easier to find content and once found, features like 'More by...' that list other albums, illustrated by a cover image and text, by the artist being streamed encourage the user to stream more content. 

2 Argos              

The website of of high street and online retailer Argos incorporates product demonstation videos so that shoppers can not only read and products and look at images but see the product demonstrated in short videos. This replicates the role of a sales assistant who in a real life face to face encounter may demonstrate the features and benefits of a product in order to encourage a shopper to purchase the item. While the site is image rich, menus use simple unadorned text making the site quick and easy to navigate allowing shoppers to find the products they are interested in more quickly.

3 Instagram 

Social media app and website Instagram is designed for users to share their photos. It is simple for users to upload images stored on their phone and the scrolling facility means its even easier to spend hours viewing other users uploaded images. However, text is also an important aspect of Instagram, which has a character limit per post of 2,200 character compared to Twitter's 180 characters which allowes for a more details story and context to accompany images. Instagram also allows for live streaming so that users can broadcast to their followers. This function has been used my media figures and performers to connect with their audience, including comedian Alistair Green who regulalry broadcasts on Instagram on a Sunday morning to answers followers questions and to take like video calls through the platform. Because the broadcast is to a phone screen and not a TV for example, there is a more direct, one-to-one feel about them which may allow followers and fans of public figures to feel more connected them and encourage them to consume their products (merchandise, tickets for performances, books etc).