Why Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players of all time (*) http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-sp-serena-williams-greatest-all-time/
About the piece:
The piece is about Serena Williams, and why she is regarded as ‘one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The text is accompanied by multimedia to aid explanation and foster interaction with readers.
Why I like it:
It is a very informative and interactive piece, the piece presents researched data about Serena Williams through graphs, picture, charts and mini-games that catches the attention of readers. The piece depicted a good image of the tennis-background of Serena Williams. The piece conveyed well that the research was conducted and obtained from reliable sources.
Good multimedia usage & explanation:
Multimedia was presented well in this piece, and the media was utilized well, therefore increases the time of readers to dwell more on the post, and be informed of the content.
The central content of piece is about Serena Williams and tennis, and the piece integrated the tennis-themed multimedia in its presentation.
1. Graphs & Charts
The charts used comparative information that effectively depicted relevant research in a concise way.
2. Videos
The videos demonstrated a glimpse of William in action during matches.
3. Pictures
It uses photos that convey a story, photos that depict the form of her body, and uses text to accompany explanation integrated in the pictures.
4. GIF
GIF was a good medium to explain information through graphics to the readers.
5. Mini-game
This is a game simulation competing against Williams, and it is the most interactive medium used. It allowed the readers to feel what it is like in court, vicariously interacting with Williams.
Excellent mobile adaptation of the interface:
The charts in the desktop version was configured to suit a vertical layout for mobile viewing, and the information was well-retained.
Some critiques about the piece & drawbacks:
(*) Title Flaw: When I was on the verge of indicating the title of the article in this post, it made me realize that there wasn’t a unifying title to this article. I had to fill out the rest of the title (I used that title that is first displayed on Google search) for the purposes of this post.
The post is very lengthy, and some readers might also find that the post contains too much multimedia, as opposed to the amount of text.
Length, attention span and did I get through the whole thing?
Most readers would not get through the whole thing because of the piece is long in nature. As a millennial, I generally have a short attention span and would anticipate the gist of the content from the first paragraph or part of the piece. The piece has critical information spread throughout. In nature, if not for the purposes of this critique post and deconstructing the piece, I would not go through the piece.
As a normal reader with average interest in tennis, my attention fluctuated as I went through the piece. There were charts, pictures, graphics and games that aided my attention to the piece but I think the level of interaction of the media component were not arranged in order.
However, tennis enthusiasts and fans of Serena Williams will particularly enjoy everything in this piece.
Some improvement suggestions for the piece:
The piece should be a bit shorter rather than its original length.
I would suggest to put the mini-game in the upper part of the piece, so more people will be able to enjoy the piece better, and will most likely anticipate for better content since their attention has already been caught, therefore will most likely to linger on the piece.
The videos can be showed in a smaller size, or should be automatically played so readers can go through all of them – since having three videos take up time.