Better usability with embedded video
David Johnson August 29th, 2007
I was on IM earlier today with Liz, and I got to ranting about one of my new pet peeves. I know, I know, “Which one, Dave, you have so many, for you are a truly grumpy man,” you say. Well yes, my bill for pet peeve food is quite high these days, so let me vent one: Embedded video is really starting to annoy me. Not always, truth be told, but I find it particularly annoying when a video clip is dropped at the top of a story. I hit play, start to read and then I can’t scroll down to keep reading if I want to keep watching. I read fast, so I get bored and annoyed, and everyone who knows me knows that’s a lethal combination. So here’s my idea: use the code for those really annoying floating menus with javascript so your video clip can scroll with me as I read. It would be like fighting fire with fire, two annoyances might make a right! Of course you could also get jiggy with AJAX and do something super slick and more flexible, but just stop anchoring that player so I can go back to reading.
7 Comments Add your own
1. JoeMo | August 29th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Or… you could just have your text scroll?
2. David Johnson | August 29th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
joe, do you mean put the main body copy in an inline frame or something like that?
upon further pondering, i wonder if allowing the video/multimedia to float with the scroll, you may increase value to ad placements that are lower on the page.
3. Michael Gay | August 29th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
David… Why would you play a video but read the text? Aren’t you then just listening to audio not watching video? And, if you’re just listening, wouldn’t it be ok if the player scrolled off the screen since you’re not looking at it?
4. JoeMo | August 29th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
@ David - yes, if you wanted you could put the text in a I-frame; think about it, no more “below the fold”
@Michael - I almost always read and watch video at the same time; usually the text gives a better description while the you get to look at the pretty colors!
5. David Johnson | August 29th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
quoth the good dr. seuss, “but that is not all i can do, said the cat.”
what am i missing seeing while i listen to the narration? is the piece actually narrated or is it raw footage of a big event?
we have piles of data, some actually blogged here, that shows that broadband usage during tv viewing hours is highest in houses with wireless networks. people surf the net on their laptops while watching tv in a combination lean-back, lean forward experience. we should take that to heart in considering our packaging and presentation of multimedia elements.
in terms of storytelling, we see the gross inefficiency of traditional style broadcast journalism in the online format. the minutes of back and forth where a story is told as the desk anchor interviews the reporter on the scene can be done so much more quickly online by putting the key points of the story in text and then saving the video for showing relevant footage of the event.
if the video is longer than a minute and anchored in line with a long text story, the presentation needs to account for the time it takes to interact with the various pieces of content. packaging is key.
6. Patrick | August 30th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Interesting discussion. I tend to read a story first and then go back and watch the video, but obviously people’s habits are different. If the video were to indeed scroll, it would have be smooth, almost floating in place and not jumpy. Seems like that could be done with a pure Flash interface…
7. JoeMo | August 30th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Having the video scroll with the page might be more difficult; it would be much easier to have the text scroll instead. I’ve never had much luck with floating menu’s unless they are extremely light-weight (which video is not). I’ll see if I can mock something up to share with you folks.
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