Text Perseveres When Video and Audio Fall Short

We’re all drawn to the multimedia power of the web. Online video creates rich experiences. Podcasts and streaming audio provide on-demand listening. Photo sharing is easy and fun. Flash helps us experience amazing graphics and animation.

But let’s be honest: We’re impatient. We’re frustrated by choppy audio or video. We access a presentation and quickly decide we don’t have time for it. We give up on photos or graphics that load too slowly. We’re annoyed as we watch the Flash file load to 100% before we can view it.

Perhaps a recent Copyblogger post put it best:

What you have to remember is that people don’t go to the web to window shop.
They go there to drive 60 miles per hour—and look at billboards.

That’s why, despite the allure of video and audio, we can’t forget about quality text. It remains the tried-and-true way to deliver online content – and it can overcome our often-fleeting interest in video and audio.

Steve Rubel recently built a persuasive case for text. His post mentions at least five reasons why text is still king:

• We can easily scan text.
• Text is the best way to attract search engine traffic.
• In the workplace, it’s more acceptable to read text on the screen.
• Text is easier to view on mobile devices.
• It’s simple to distribute text through RSS, e-mail, social networks and other delivery methods.

As our organizations create more online video and audio, remember to surround it – or supplement it – with text. The scanners, skimmers and search engines will thank you.