EPJ News Multimedia Project Critique

As part of EPJ, we've been asked to critique a multimedia project from a news organization's website. I chose to critique "disabled in Vietnam" by LiPo Chung, on the San Jose Mercury News website. (Alternative link here.)

As you might be able to tell from the screen capture, the project, etc., was a little bit larger than what was allotted for viewing on my screen. When I scroll down slightly, I can view the whole thing, but not the whole page.

This, I think, is poor planning on the Mercury News's part, because in order to see the controls, the user has to scroll away from the identifying logo for the site. Yes, they may have gotten there, by choice, specifically choosing the website before the multimedia project, but often times links to articles or multimedia stories are forwarded. Having that name recognition there for the user to see, without having to work at it, is important. Most people are lazy and will find it irritating to have to use the scroll bar to simply see something very simple.


As far as usability, there are several touches that help keep the user engaged:

• The flash project comes with a Play button that changes to a Pause button when the project is playing. it's a nice use of space, I think, and doesn't make it too confusing for the user.
• The project does not start immediately, but waits for the user to press Play. Once the button is pushed, it begins to load quickly, so that there are not buffering breaks. This is a good choice, because the user has control over the project and at the same time doesn't have to wait if they are interested in watching it.
• There is an option for the project to be full screen, but in my case, it doesn't make that much of a difference. In other projects, where the project is smaller, having that option was a bonus for me, because then I can more easily see it all. I did not notice any difference in image quality.
• Speaking of image quality, the project provided a nice combination of still images and video, and the image quality of the project was very clear. Audio also was very clear (even though some of the speakers had accents). The sound included in the essay was a little distracting, but it did not detract from the quality of the audio of the project. Subtitles were used in places where the English spoken may not have been clear.
• Between the Play button and the Fullscreen button is the progress line. It stretches the entire length of the project between these two buttons. The scroll dot is a relatively nice size. This, combined with the speed with which the scroll dot moves across the line, it doesn't make it seem to be such a big project (even though the project itself is over 6 minutes long).
• The project lists both total time of the project and time elapsed as the project is playing - this is another way in which the project lets the user know where in the total time the images are and aids in keeping the user watching until the whole thing is finished. While I found the topic interesting, the actual content was a little thin for the amount of time that the project took. Having those 2 things (the scroll bar moving and the time ticking away) helped me persevere until the end.
• I thought the overall layout and color scheme of the project worked and did not distract the user from the project. 
• I had a few problems with the content of the project - it started out with ambient sound and images, but with no real explanation of what the project was about. In fact, it took almost 1:30 to get to where it really started to give me the point of the project. The project gave me a lot of images of the people involved, but many of them seemed to be there not to provide progress but to create an emotional connection with these poeple, almost like a UNICEF commercial. In fact, when the project ended on the smiling face of Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh, it really felt like an announcer was going to come on and asked for donations, ala 'Save the Children.' Taking those filler images out I don't think would have detracted much from the overall quality of the project, but would definitely reduced the time down to a more manageable level.