Exercise 20 Research and analyse web slideshows

Research and analyse web slideshows

Research the websites of some magazines and newspapers, all of whom include slideshows as a way of presenting certain groups of images such as ‘the week in review’, or ‘the day’s top pictures’, or a photo essay on a specific topic.  Try to examine at least six different websites.  Select two examples of what you consider to be particularly effective presentations.

Now write an analysis which includes the following points:

·      Do the different sites present slideshows in essential the same way, or are there subtle or substantial differences between them?

·      Are there any features that all the slideshows have in common?

·      How do the slideshows differ in the amount of choice that they offer the viewer for playing them?  Is viewer choice a good thing?

·      What are the most obvious failings, in your opinion, of these slideshows?

·      If you were constructing a slideshow for one of these sites, list the features that you would include, based on your experience so far.

·      What features set your two chosen sites apart from the rest?

Examples

The course notes direct us to look at a series of examples included on the website links 15-20:

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/interactive/2011/jan/06/new-review-month-in-photography?INTCMP=SRCH
• http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/01/23/travel/0123-borneo-slideshow.html
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/photo_galleries/article7124139.ece
• http://www.parismatch.com/Actu-Match/Monde/Photos/Janvier-2011/Heurts-236393/
• http://www.stern.de/kultur/tv/dschungelcamp/dschungelcamp-tag-8-sarah-rasselt-durchs-dschungel-abitur-1645851.html
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8274567/Animal-pictures-of-the-week-21-January-2011.html

Slideshows have been part of the English way of life since slides were invented in the early 1900s.  The slideshow, as we know it today, has been around since the 1950s when photography became available to the masses due to the availability of cheaper cameras.  It was expected that families came home with various images of their holidays which they then proceeded to show to their friends and families.  People who took slides for projection needed a portable slide projector to show their images.

These days the slideshow has evolved and when someone refers to a slideshow it is invariably a PowerPoint presentation or "any display in the form of a series of static images, such as on a computer screen".

Characteristics

"Do the different sites present slideshows in essentially the same way, or are there subtle or substantial differences between them?"

The Guardian: This is unusual in that it starts to play sound as soon as the show starts. This is one of the

The Times: this is not really a slideshow, but another series of images to work through manually. It’s quick to load and update and to see everything you have to log in so not much to see if you are not a subscriber.

Some basic characteristics I can identify include:

• Navigation controls and linking to more information
• Sizing and sound position within a page
• Amount of advertising and other content
• Play controls (stop/start/pause/full screen etc)
• Transitions (effects and speed)
• Sharing options (social media options, Twitter, Facebook, etc)

Features in Common

"Are there any features that all the slideshows have in common?"

All web slideshows have a set of images set up in a sequence that has a short caption linked to a news item which opens in a new window or tab.  Otherwise each newspaper’s news page is slightly different.

Viewer Choice

"How do the slideshows differ in the amount of choice that they offer the viewer for playing them? Is the viewer choice a good thing?"

Choice is fairly limited to what your browser offers.  I generally use Firefox, or occasionally Safari when Firefox is unavailable, but the changes are minimal.  Some e-newspapers offer an automated step to move along whilst with others the viewer has to click each new image to find the next one.  All the images seem to be at 72 dpi to keep loading down to a minimum, the larger the file the slower it loads on to the screen.

Sometimes it takes a few seconds to load the images and the viewer is waiting to move on but has to wait for the section to load fully before it responds.

Failings

"What are the most obvious failings, in your opinion, of these slideshows?"

My first impressions of the slideshows from the sample links were not good; they all seemed to have issues for me. And I am always surprised to see how many HTML errors (standards violations) these pages have (counts included below), which makes browser rendering somewhat of a lottery:

The Guardian: The Flash based content will prevent those accessing from Apple platforms. This starts to play sound as soon as the show starts and with no obvious way to turn it off. Irritating if you are listening to music or maybe browsing in an open environment (office space).

Navigation was my main issue here. Clicking on the images just seemed to stop and start the show. To find the news item I had to activate the captions and follow the links from there. Linked content opened over the slide show, using the browser back button then reloads the page and so the slideshow resets so there is little continuity if you wanted to then view the next story.

The Times: Until you mouse over there is no visual cue that this is anything other than a single still image. Again not really a slideshow, another series of images to step through manually. All image links route via a login page so a very short experience for non-subscribers.

Features to include

"If you were constructing a slideshow for one of these sites, list the features you would include, based on your experience so far?"

My main requirement as a viewer would be to navigate quickly to the information I want to access. I like the animation of something like the Guardian but want to see the associated news without jumping away, so more like The Times.

Whilst I understand that adverts are an integral part of websites these days, it should be kept to a minimum.  What I do find menacing is that as you navigate around your chosen site you can see further information/items of sites you have visited on previous visits.

Set apart

"What features set your two chosen sites apart from the rest?"

Of the sites the two I prefer are The Guardian and The Times. This is because they offer static pages that don't jump about and don't have distracting animated advertising. They also offer simple navigation allowing the viewer to proceed at their own pace.