The Des Moines Register’s multimedia story package, “Harvest of Change: Iowa farm towns graying, shrinking” from September 4, 2014 includes many different types of media, that allow users to better understand the information they wish to present. It presented a topic that not everyone would be interested in, in a way that engages readers.
Some of the strengths of this package are that it had a very easy navigational structure—scrolling; there were no weird buttons or pages that I had to try to find. However, because it is strictly scrolling, people may get tired of scrolling and just leave the page before finishing the article or even getting to the cool features. One of these features is the virtual reality tour of the farms. This brings a lot to the package, especially considering it was published in 2014; they were up-to-date on the latest technology. The interactive map also brought a lot to the package, as it integrated many statistics into one easy-to-use map.
One downside is the layout of the page itself. One paragraph toward the beginning of the article is squished to the side, making it difficult to read. Also, I understand that websites use advertisements, but the ads on this page were often in the way of the content, and when I clicked to remove the ad, I was taken to another page. Something else the story could use, as briefly mentioned earlier, is some more color or perhaps some fun graphics, something to catch the eye more effectively than the current white background does.
COMM 340 