Thinking in Picures - Graphics and Animations

[Paul Kortz <Paul -dot- Kortz -at- ARAN -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Hi,

I'm new to the list, so please forgive any questions that have been answered
before.

Regarding the use of graphics - surely they are essential to the art of
technical communication, especially when trying to describe difficult
concepts or complex procedures. Given the amount of cheap clip art around,
you don't need to be a graphic artist.

However, I'm interested in going one step further than this. Many of us are
embracing HTML and other web standards for our help systems and this will
open up many more possibilities. For example, the use of animation
technologies such as Shockwave (using Director, Flash etc.). I know many of
us use ScreenCams for "Show Me" type material. However, I've found these to
be somewhat flakey and limited. What I have in mind is something nearer to
TV standard animations of the sort you might see on news channels etc.

Last year I used Macromedia's Authorware to produce a CBT course for a
software product and made extensive use of both animations and "interactive"
graphics. This really opened my eyes to the potential.

I wonder if any of you have any thoughts, ideas, experiences you'd like to
share on this subject.

Paul

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