Platinum Edition Using HTML 4, XML, and Java 1.2
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): Eric Ladd
ISBN: 078971759x
Publication Date: 11/01/98

Chat Channels

Chat channels enable users to interact in real-time. Some sites support a general chat channel where users can discuss the site or topics that relate to site content. Another application of chat channels is to provide a question-and-answer session with a subject-matter expert or celebrity.

	Most chat servers have a feature that enables you to record a chat session. Reviewing the transcripts of a chat is a terrific way to gather feedback and other ideas for improving your site.

Multimedia Content

As browsers become better able to display multimedia content inline, you will see more and more of it on Web sites. The biggest impediment continues to be bandwidth. Most multimedia files are quite large and may take several minutes to download.

You have many options when it comes to providing multimedia content, including

•  Audio

•  Video

•  Macromedia Director movies

Most multimedia files require a helper application or plug-in to view them, so be sure to notify users about what viewer programs they need to download before they get to pages with multimedia content.

Audio clips are especially popular on music sites, where they enable a visitor to preview parts of an album before buying. Audio files come in several formats, including .wav, .au, and .aiff for sound bytes and .mid for music.

Streamed audio is different from other audio formats in that the sound is played as information is received by the browser, rather than after the entire file is downloaded. Progressive Network’s RealAudio (.ra or .ram) is the leading streamed audio format. You can learn more about RealAudio by directing your browser to http://www.realaudio.com/.

Computer video files also come in several formats. The most popular are MPEG (.mpg), QuickTime from Apple (.qt or .mov), and Video for Windows from Microsoft (.avi, short for Audio Video Interleave). Computer video files are also huge, usually on the order of 1MB or more of information for a video clip that lasts only a few seconds. Combine this with limited bandwidth and you can see why Web video hasn’t attained the prominence of other multimedia forms.

Nonetheless, progress is being made on the Web video front. Streaming can enable video to be displayed as it is received, although this technique is still in a formative stage. Microsoft made a bold move by making ActiveMovie technology available for Internet Explorer 4. ActiveMovie eliminates the need for video helper applications by enabling Internet Explorer to display MPEG, QuickTime, and Video for Windows files inline. Additionally, Real Video by Progressive Networks provides support for streaming video content.

Macromedia Director is an authoring tool for composing multimedia presentations or movies. A movie draws on text, graphics, audio, and video information to create interactive applications that can be run on Macintosh and Windows platforms or that can be delivered over the Internet (see Figure 1.19).

Director movies are viewed in a browser using Shockwave, a plug-in freely available from Macromedia. Because Director movie files are typically quite large, Macromedia also provides a utility called AfterBurner, which compresses the movie file and optimizes it for transfer over the Internet.

FIGURE 1.19  Comedy Central animates one of its “South Park” characters using Macromedia’s Shockwave.

Testing Your Design

After you have completed your design work and have a first cut of your site developed, you should consider testing the design and looking for ways to improve it before final roll-out. The following three sections give you some different tests to try.

Pilot the Site

Taking the site for a test drive with some potential users is a great way to gather ideas for making it better. To do this, round up some people who have some degree of Web-surfing experience, but who have not seen the site. Turn them loose on the site and encourage them to look for things that they would change. You can even give them a feedback form to fill out with a standard set of questions and an open-ended question for other thoughts they may have.

	If you do pilot your site with a group of users, watch them as they do it! You’ll be amazed at what you can learn from facial expressions and body language.

Try It with Different Browsers

As you developed the site, you probably used only one browser. After you are finished, you owe it to your audience to view the site in other browsers, including at least one non-graphical browser. Record any corrections needed, then go back to your HTML files and look for ways to address the problems you find.

	As an extension to trying out your site with different browsers, you can also change your monitor’s resolution so that you can see what your site looks like at 640×480, 800×600, and 1024×768 pixels.

Try It at Different Connection Speeds

To accomplish this one, you may have to send people home to sign on. It is, however, well worth the effort. Have them check the pages on the site and time how long it takes for each to download. One general rule suggests that it should not take more than 15 seconds for each page to download. Identify pages that take longer than this and look for ways to scale back the amount of information.

Trends in Web Site Design

When the Web was growing at its fastest rate, new, high-end technologies were being thrown at content providers and users at an alarming rate—so fast, in fact, that few people took the time to think about whether they were really appropriate. Instead, many technologies were used just for the sake of using them. Frequently, the result was disastrous—lengthy download times, unusable pages, and annoyed users. In the late 1990s, the Web community has demonstrated a move that could be seen as “getting back to basics,” in which the high-end stuff is rarely, if ever, used. This chapter closes with a look at this and some of the other site design trends that will carry us into the new millennium.