Max Planck Society : Previewing videos

A timely lesson in how to set up an informative and user-friendly online film archive/library.

The Site

The Max Planck Society, a German independent scientific research organisation, has a well-documented film library within the Documentation, Events, Multimedia section of its website. Its introduction page has a display of nine thumbnail ‘stills’ from the “newest Movies”. Each image is titled and sits above two icons representing a text page and a film camera. Clicking on either opens a pop-up window, the content of which is determined by the choice of icon. The ‘page’ leads to a written description of the film, with links appended to ‘Involved Institutes’ and related information. The ‘camera’ presents the Download/Play options for Windows Media Player (2) and Quicktime (2) formats, with file sizes clearly indicated. The pop-up has its own simple navigation allowing users to switch between Description and Download/Play without reverting to the index page.

A dropdown menu on the index page allows the full video library to be searched for any of 17 topics. The German-language version of the site holds 50 films, archived annually from 2003; the English version has 30 films, starting in 2004.

The Takeaway

Multimedia content on corporate and institutional websites is set to grow and expand in line with the availability and enhancement of broadband technology. The Max Planck Society provides a timely lesson in how to set up an informative and user-friendly online film archive/library. Of particular note is the pop-up ‘library card’ with its helpful synopsis of the film, something surprisingly lacking with many video presentations despite the obvious service to users in being able to preview the content before deciding to launch the film or not. Selection is also helped by the topic dropdown, while the pop-up’s internal navigation makes it a simple, easy step from deciding to watch the film to launching it in the optimum format.

Organisations not yet ready to launch themselves into the world of online film could do worse than check if users of their existing document archives might benefit from the application of the lessons about content previewing and labelling.

First published on 01 February, 2007