After years of struggling with client-side support for video formats, I finally have a clear favorite. With over 98% penetration on users’ computer systems, Adobe Flash ensures that visitors to the Peace Corps website see our videos. The video player is an adaptation of Jeroen Wijering’s FLV Media Player, which was chosen for it’s playlist, skinning, and plugin capabilities. Out of the box the player includes basic controls and functionality, but with a bit of tweaking, becomes a magnificent tool for any website.
Main Player Screen
Closed Caption Screen
Before the video player was upgraded, maintaining the Peace Corps video library was an absolute headache. In addition to supporting multiple file formats in varying bitrates (we still had measurable dial-up traffic), transcripts for each video had to be displayed for Section 508 compliance. With the FLV player, closed captioning could be imported from a TimedText XML file. Sweet!
Additional Option Screens
In lieu of adding icons to the player’s main toolbar, an expanded view shows user options in a more descriptive manner. Once the main video is complete, additional videos are recommended.
Draft Video Players
Here are a few drafts that led me to the final design.
