As technology advances, it’s essential to stay up to date with the latest forms of media. Interactive multimedia, also known as interactive media, surrounds everything that we do in today’s age. Interactive media involves many elements to make it function and provide a premium user experience.
This form of media offers powerful benefits, both to the consumer and the brands that use it in their marketing and outreach.
Interactive media is a computer-delivered form of digital content where the user controls, manipulates and combines different digital media.[1] These digital media include sound, video, text, animation, and computer graphics. When the user provides instructions, multimedia applications are designed to provide specific and immediate feedback.
When you activate a touchscreen phone, this is a form of interactive media. Your favorite social media or gaming apps are perfect examples of how app developers have combined multimedia design with interactive applications.
Interactive media is far different than traditional media. Before the internet, most of the media produced was traditional media. Due to technological advances, we have expanded our reach through interactive media.
Traditional media includes radio and television.[2] These forms of media are passive and do not require active participation from the user. They need only their intrinsic digital design as opposed to requiring someone to control it. Users cannot engage with these forms of media other than changing the channel or turning off the TV or radio.
Interactive media allows the user to interact with it directly, sharing information and communicating with others. It has to have a user on the other end controlling the outcome of the experience.
The purpose of interactive media is to allow the user to engage with the technology actively. This will lead to the user being far more engaged in the content and having a higher recall of the information presented than with traditional media.
Interactive multimedia is designed to create and enhance a better user experience, unlike that of traditional media. For something to enhance a users experience and be considered interactive media, it must incorporate one or more of the following elements:
When the user interface has an interaction design based on these elements, the user can change the outcome of the experience. This will make the experience more immersive and engaging to the user. This new media form has consumed all generations in today’s age.
Interactive media doesn’t just engage users and allow them to be more active. It also helps them communicate directly with organizations, people, and companies when they usually would be disconnected.
There is also an educational component to interactive media which makes it very powerful for e-learning. It encourages students to be more engaged and active in their learning experiences. It also promotes student collaboration and control over what or how they’re learning.
How people search for jobs, take part in interviews, attend school, and advertise for open positions have all been influenced by interactive media.
With today’s technology and how people engage with each other, it is best to have something that catches their attention. This form of media opens up many doors for those who take part in this new technology.
Interactive media can streamline collaboration and communication among teams. This will lead to faster response time and decision-making, as well as improved productivity. Tools like Loom videos and Survey Monkey are examples of interactive media collaboration tools.
When a student or new hire is engaged and active in the learning process, interactive media tools can ensure that more information is retained and help them better understand a wealth of new information.
When interactive media is used in advertising and marketing, it can boost engagement which will result in higher sales and revenue. Ads with both text and image or video are more popular, offering multilayered engagement and increased product recall.
A personalized experience is when the user is in control of the outcome, thereby increasing their level of satisfaction. When someone can fully customize their experience, they will be more likely to continue using the product or service. An example of personalized interactive media is Mapme, a code-free mapping software that brands can easily integrate into their website, and any user can customize it for their needs.
With interactive media, content will be available to a larger audience. This can include those that have language barriers and visual or hearing disabilities. It also will help to make complicated information easier to process and remember. Including subtitles on all video content is a good example of content with increased accessibility.
Users prefer when they are able to engage and interact with the interactive media. This leads to a higher engagement level and a more immersive experience. When things are more engaging, they make the user more excited about the service.
We live in a digital world, and interactive media is all around us. Everywhere you look, you will find some form of this type of information technology. Types of interactive media can be found in almost every person’s home.
One of the most commonly used forms of interactive technology is social media apps and websites. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are the most common. These apps or websites use text and graphics to allow users to share information and photos with others. They also provide an outlet for online chats, media sharing, and entertainment.
Video games allow the user to make decisions in the game and to respond to sound and visual cues that are computer generated. This form of interactive media provides the user with a human-computer interaction because they control the game and the possible outcome.
Interactive video content is a “choose your own adventure” type of engagement that allows the user to decide what will happen next in a movie or video. A prime example of this is Netflix’s movie “Bandersnatch.” When this film hit the streaming service in 2018, it rose in popularity due to the increased level of engagement.
There is an app for nearly anything that you can think of. If someone uses an app on a smartphone or tablet, the interactive media allows you to perform a variety of actions. Today, actions like navigation, checking the weather, reading news stories, playing a game, or shopping online are mostly app-driven. Apps are highly interactive and offer a customizable experience.
Virtual reality (VR) has become a sought-after type of interactive media. It allows the user to completely immerse themselves into a digital world through simulations. In these simulations, the user will be able to make decisions, and the computer will provide specific and different outcomes. This digital world looks so real it is almost a carbon copy of reality.
Interactive multimedia will be around for the long haul. There are constant advances happening in computer science and graphic design that will make interactive media appeal to the public for years to come. These digital technologies can have great benefits to users and company owners alike.
Interactive media can have certain limitations. They won’t allow someone to feel or smell anything that the screens present to them. It is purely through visual and audio methods that interactive media can exist.
Many different devices can be used for interactive multimedia. Smartphones, tablets, computers, gaming systems, and VR systems are all devices that will be able to handle interactive media.
Interactive media is driven by human-computer interaction. It consists of four main components. These components include the task, user interface, the context, and the user. All of these components will come together to create an interactive multimedia experience.
