Multi-Dimensional and Multi-Directional: Website Editing

During a meeting with my advisor last week, I showed him this blog and some of the projects for my digital communications class. He loved it! We decided to test all of the advertised features on my blog and discovered that the search bar doesn't actually work. Whoops! Sorry about that! It's things like this that Chapter 6 of Brian Carrol's Writing for Digital Media focuses on. Editing, while being a key process in print literature, is also a key process for online presentation. Online, however, editing must focus on a different set of characteristics. Let's explore those.

Multimedia

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As an website user myself, I found their discussion of multimedia very interesting. The take-home point was that the medium or media used on a website must be that which will most effectively tell the story.  Editors go through a website and make sure that multimedia is being used and that successfully conveys the intended message. What type of multimedia do you enjoy interacting with most and why? Here is the list of characteristics that Carrol deems important:

• Short is better
• Interactive is better
• Personal (or local or hyperlocal) is preferred
• Navigability is central (the better the interface, the better the experience) 

This seems to mirror to me the important qualities of print writing: clear and concise. So although the message is conveyed through a different medium, we still look for the same things. 

Mistakes

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Carrol quoted some editors in this field, and they gave him some of the most common mistakes that they find when looking at websites. 

• Names
• Professions/positions/ages/political parties
• Dates/numbers
• Geography
• Emails/addresses/Web sites/telephone numbers

When websites make these mistakes, does it significantly take away from their credibility? Why or why not?

I know there have been many times that I click on a link and can't get to the advertised page or product. I'm not sure that it necessarily takes away from the site's credibility, but I personally get frustrated. This is a common occurrence on Pinterest, and it makes me sad that I can't get to all the cute stuff that I see.

Verification

The final point I'd like to discuss is the importance of verification. Not only do editors verify grammar and sources, they also verify links and other online related media. The focus of new sites in particular is to streamline this process because they must compete with the need for immediacy. Do you feel that we should focus more on verification or is it okay to sacrifice some accuracy for speediness?