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ONE SMALL EXAMPLE OF POOR CONTIGUITY IS A STORY IN WHICH TEXT AND GRAPHICS DO NOT MATCH. IN THIS EXAMPLE, THE GRAPHIC TITLE READS, "HIGH-END SALES FAIRING BETTER."
IT IS UNCLEAR WHAT THE GRAPHIC IS TELLING US.
IDEAL CONTIGUITY, HOWEVER, REFERS TO HOW ALL
MULTIMEDIA ON A PAGE OR WEB SITE WORK TOGETHER.
CONTIGUITY
(Based in part on work by Mayer and Moreno at
University of California-Santa Barbara.)
For some, this concept is best understood with examples (see the link to the ABCnews.com sample on the previous page). Contiguity refers to how text, words, graphics and even animation are presented together. Research has shown that individuals who learn from multimedia outperformed others when the design: (1) combined words with pictures rather than words alone; (2) placed words close to corresponding pictures; (3) used narration with corresponding animation and; (4) avoided extraneous words, pictures, and sound effects. The last condition is perhaps the most difficult thing to avoid on a Web page that combines thousands of words with an overwhelming amount of choices, ads and other features.
Contiguity asks multimedia journalists and designers to consider the extent to which graphics and animation meaningfully compliment the hypertext on a Web page or mobile screen. For example, a colorful graphic that illustrates multiple steps still needs to communicate the order and meaning of each step and the relationships of the order. Merely connecting the steps with arrows does may not suffice in communicating to non-experts. After a graphic or animation is produced (often by a designer) contiguity can be completely overlooked when a content manager or management system assembles all of the multimedia of a single story. This should be of concern to all parties before the audience is exposed to the story or Web site.
