The usage of mutlimedia in a communication environment.

There are five main things that it is important when you use multimedia:

• It is important to keep in mind what the goal of the communication is. It can be to exchange information, for example when a company wants to communicate their new corporate identity to their stakeholders and clients. It can also be for educational purposes, for example when a teacher uses PowerPoint-presentations and video clips to explain certain concepts to the students. It can also be for entertainment. Just look at You Tube and other website for examples.

• Secondly, you have to know what type of media you are going to use. Examples of possible media are text, hypertext, video, images/photo’s, audio etc. It is important to remember that multimedia means the integration of these types of media, so you have to use more than one.

• Thirdly, you have to decide how it is going to be used. Using these presentations online, means uploading it to a website on the Internet. When it is used offline, it is most commonly stored on a CD and in the right format so that it is compatible with a lot of hardware and programs/applications.

• You also have to keep in mind which applications you are going to use when you plan these presentations, and when you put them together. There are a wide variety of applications available which you can use, for example PowerPoint and Flash, just to name two.

• Always keep track of the resources to have available. These include your designers, the computers, the applications, your available time etc. The available finances are also an important recourse.

All of the above will have an effect on how your presentation will look in the end. Plan thoroughly and always keep in mind what you want your end-product to look like. And use what you have the best way you possibly can.