I’ve posted a few scattered thoughts in the past about my efforts at creating photo/audio slideshows.  They’re a great way to provide visual interest and ultimately, tell better stories.

Getting skilled at this craft will be all the more important as communications shops at universities are forced to become more web-centric, forced to pitch (and publish) stories that go beyond words.

I want to talk about craft and quality.  Too often we begin with tools, equipment, and software.

That’s why this post resonated with me and I wanted to share it:

How to make your Audio Slideshows Better from Colin Mulvany at Mastering Multimedia

14 strong tips here.

I especially like these three:

Like video, try to match up photos to what the narrator is talking about. The same goes for the natural sound. When you do this, your story will really start to crackle.

Use music for a reason, and not because you need to make a boring show more interesting. Don’t use music to manipulate emotion. If it is not in the narrative or photos, don’t force it with music.

Your final audio edit should be as smooth as butter. Nothing should take you out of the moment. I like to close my eyes and just listen to my edit without looking at the timeline. Hit stop when you hit a bump and fix it. The difference between a great edit and a poor edit is in how you do your final audio tweaks. Make sure to normalize your audio so that there are not low and high dropouts in the mix.

Lots of other interesting posts on that blog.

The real motivation for me don’t come from a dry list of tips.  It comes when I happen upon a great slideshow:

This one tugs at me.  I sit here watching it while my own 2-year old daughter is away visiting her grandma.  The sounds of a young child being completely entertained by her dad is something special.  There’s almost no need for the photographs:

The women’s rowing team from the University of Virginia:

Related:

Great tool for audio slideshows

Soundslides and the Rise of the audio slideshow

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen, John Cherry, watercolor on watercolor canvas

See Also:

• Web Development by Committee?
• One of us is smarter than all of us

The “webmaster” types are a dying breed. Here’s one of the best analogies I’ve seen on this topic, to date:

Quarterbacks and Linebackers
Finding someone who can do it all isn’t realistic. It’s like trying to lead your baseball team in pitching and hitting; like trying to play quarterback and line backer at the same time. At a certain (low) level of competition, it is done. However, in the big leagues when you’re practicing eight, ten or more hours a day and playing games, there simply isn’t enough time to be great at everything. There simply isn’t enough time to learn all the plays and perfect their execution. Your coach expects you to pick something and be an all-star at it, to specialize.

Having a team is a good thing.

taken from: I have a friend who knows a guy whose son does websites.

See also:
Finding Balance on your Web Team

Another See Also:
This reminded me of an old A List Apart article about a designer on a job hunt:

WEB DESIGNER WANTED!

Must have skills with Photoshop, Quark, Acrobat, Illustrator, 3D Studio and Fireworks. Minimum of 2 years experience and able to work in a fast paced environment.

Sounded like a good fit. I read on:

Must also have programming skills in HTML, JavaScript and Perl

Okay, I could probably swing that.

Experience working with Oracle and JSP … must be able to administrate IIS and NT Enterprise Server….

Wait a second. Was this the same job description? Had I skipped over something? Was it a misprint? Nope, it in fact was the same job description. Maybe they should have used the heading, “Renaissance Person Wanted.”

Great article over at User Interface Engineering.

Communicate Quick: First Impressions Through Visual Web Design

While many people still associate visual design for the Web with “making things look pretty”, investing in the presentation layer of Web sites can quickly yield more significant returns. When done right, the visual design of a Web page can communicate key concepts to Web users: what am I looking at, how do I use it, and why would I care to?

..Within the first moments of encountering a Web page, people jump between the distinct visual areas of the page trying to get a sense of what they are looking at.

..Once a Web page passes the crucial 2-3 second “what is this” test, its next challenge is getting people to the information they need. Once again, the presentation layer can help by utilizing visual relationships to make key information areas quickly scan-able.

..when designing Web pages, it’s important to keep the initial functional role of visual design in mind. The visual design of Web pages should:

• Set initial expectations by communicating what kind of information it provides.
• Provide a way to quickly scan that information in order to locate something of value.
• Allow people to immerse themselves in the information they want and explore other relevant information when they choose to.

Everyone, my coworker’s name is Tonya.  This is what she looks like:

She is attending HighEdWeb and I am not.

All of you reading this post, who are also attending the conference; your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make Tonya’s experience at HighEdWeb as awkward and strange as possible.

A little back-story, followed by your assignment instructions:

I initially asked Tonya to do one simple thing at the conference: Find Anthony Dunn and give him a hug, specifically for making this cartoon.  For all the cartoons.

Then I realized that I was selling this whole hugging idea way too short.

Your task at is to find this Tonya person and give her a hug.  Awkwardly.  Out of the blue.  Like you’ve known her forever.

Why?

Tonya has the unfortunate task of working with me.  She needs your support and condolences. You’ve read my blog occasionally, from a safe distance.  While Tonya on the other hand,  ..she’s had to put up with my sarcastic, pessimistic remarks in person, without being able to magically scroll or click away.  She deserves your sympathies.

She needs a hug.

So in the same manner that you complied with the request to vote for my nephew on that stupid kid karaoke contest, (he won, btw, and is going to disneyland ) you’ll comply with this special request as well.  The only difference being this request includes an awkward hugging component, and perhaps takes more commitment and courage than selecting a radio button and clicking “vote”.

I’m confident that the numbers are on my side.

Feedburner tells me there are 71 of you that actually subscribe to my feed, and I’m willing to bet at least 20 of those 71 are going to be at the conference, milling around with Tonya.

So seriously, give Tonya a hug. And then say something like: “I’m sorry you have to work with Drew”. Report back to me here on this post in the form of a comment.

Your other task is to attend Kyle James’ analytics session and act like you’re sleeping.

I kid.  I kid.