I think at this point in time including either a dynamic menu or set of buttons is a must for web sites. Including only text hyperlinks just looks a little bit too plain and, frankly, amateurish. In Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual, Matthew MacDonald covers the process of adding JavaScript code to create rollover buttons and dynamic menus. He provides suggestions for where to get free code and does a very thorough job of explaining the process. In fact, the more I read the more I am interested in learning more about writing scripts. At the very least I need to check out some tutorials. Not that I think I can write better stuff than what is already available, it's just that as I read about how it works it makes the background processes of Dreamweaver much clearer.
Speaking of Dreamweaver background processes, the program includes an automated feature for adding rollover buttons; you just set your main button image and the rollover image, specify the link, and Dreamweaver inserts the script into your page. This can't possibly be any easier and I am definitely primed to add rollovers to my Taste the World web site. I am in the process of deciding what the buttons should look like so I will add more about that design process in a later post. I am intrigued by the dynamic menu option as well, but haven't decided if the site would warrant that type of linking. With the inclusion of product pages it might, but I am experimenting with using two navigation menus (a primary and secondary navigation) instead. I think coupled with product thumbnails this will work for the site, but I need to see if the buttons and thumbnails make sense without adding extra pages to click through.
MacDonald also covers the use of multimedia in the book, and I think this a great page enhancement. I don't think, however, it will have a place in my particular web page. That said, he describes adding YouTube pages for video and I have to say this is really the only viable option. I created a YouTube video page a couple semesters ago to show case a presentation with screen-captured video and it works beautifully. I was able to save the video in high definition and upload a huge file (I think it was a couple of gigabytes if I remember correctly). Of course I can take a lesson from MacDonald's optimization primer, but in the presentation case I needed to keep the quality high so the screen text would remain readable. Anyway, I would never have had the space to host that video myself; I like the idea of placing it in a searchable forum anyway. And MacDonald notes that you might be able to drive users to your web site if they find your video content on YouTube. It is a great promotional tool in that regard.
Check out my YouTube resource page here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/rfitzsim12
As for audio, Flash seems like the way to go. The benefits far outweigh the other embedding and downloading options in almost every case I can think of and scripts for adding players to a web site are available for free. When considering audio, I can't help but think of the 2Advanced Studios website that I discussed in an earlier blog. Honestly, I believe I stayed on the site ten times longer because of the soundscape than I would have if I had browsed in silence. It was subtle and hypnotic and the slightly sci-fi edge that the audio had on rollovers was a dramatic enhancement to the site contents. It was one of the most brilliant designs I can think of. That said, I can't imagine a soundscape that would fit so seamlessly into my own storefront site. The rhythmic ambiance of 2Advanced is perfect for the fantasy genre; classical music seems too overdone for a storefront; modern musical genres don't really fit the theme either. It also seems to me that people may prefer to web shop in silence, so I will forgo the audio for this project. I am going to add some music to my personal site when I get a chance though; I do like the idea of streaming from someplace like Pandora to get a little variety into the mix.
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