Is There Really Anything All That New About New Media?

The astounding growth of the internet, the proliferation of interactive displays and CDs means that new media is welcome and here to stay. The new media offer a greater diversity of ways to communicate, yet demand a greater participation by the viewer. Passive media, like television, radio and the printed page, are still vital and still important, but they must now compete for our time with media that can be much more engaging.

But is there really anything all that new about all this new media?

New media is another way to communicate your message to consumers. Simple. If you don't have a message to begin with, fancy new media won't help much in the long run. Yes, it can be entertaining, with sound and movement, or it can be a 24-hour storefront that takes orders and dispenses information. But the key is always communication: a one-to-one interaction that both speaks and listens.

Construct finds that no matter what you have to say or how you want to say it, there is still just you and your viewer engaged in a conversation. The more you know about your business and your customers, the better that conversation will be for both of you. Just as in a face-to-face meeting where posture, tone and gesture all count toward making a connection, communication in other media must not only make a good first impression, but also a lasting message from a unique personality.

The internet offers a wonderful way to communicate more information in a richer visual language than ever before. Our focus is on that language: the interface that guides viewers through a unique, appropriate presentation. Construct places great emphasis on the value of efforts to produce a consistent, engaging and useful interface. Without it, the moment is wasted and interaction stops.

Interaction is an immersive experience: it's sink or swim for viewers. We respect the viewer: their time, intelligence and visual sophistication. Appropriate guidance is built in at every level: colors, sizing, positioning, images, text and sound create a hierarchy of information that is crucial to each interactive experience.

Remember that your hard-won internet viewers have already made a significant investment into your site: first, type in the URL, then wait for the page, try to figure out how it works once it all shows up, make a few clicks to see if it makes any sense, and maybe then actually get closer to some hoped-for information. The interactive experience must reward their investment, not hinder it.

But is this news? Aren't magazines interactive? Turn the page...instant interaction. Change the channel. It's the same thing in "new" media. A connection is made. Then the real work of communicating can happen and begin to serve the needs of your viewers.

Respect the viewer. Attend to every detail. Don't waste time. Watch how applying the best principles of communicating in all media applies to the new as well.

The next Views column talks about why now is the best time to improve your internet investment and seven simple ways to do it. Keep in touch.

Other Views columns were titled About the Internet, this Site and Communication and The Importance of Clarity and Craft in Today's Marketplace.