Interactivity

I found the discussion on interactivity interesting because it seems like such a balance between giving the viewer the ability to play around with the graphics and text and specifically read what they find interesting and making it easy and clear to work with. After class today I realised just how many options there are to format flash designs and I feel like with all these options (colours, buttons etc.) it would be easy to get distracted from the journalism itself. It is also important not to distract from the journalism with games and overly interactive designs that have no real relation to journalism itself but to attract the reader's initial attention. I looked at the design examples from the readings and it seems that you should focus on the journalistic aspect and then choose appropriate flash designs that keep with the 'feel' of your journalism whether it be serious, entertaining or otherwise. It is also important to keep with the same flash design that you start with so not to confuse the viewer or make your page look more professional.