| |
| |
|
Flash Doesnt Always Add Shine to Web Efforts
The trend today to overuse animation in a website's opening pages only serves to confirm that style often overshadows substance. Sometimes a "flash" in the pan - often courtesy of Macromedia Corp.'s web animation program - is simply a flash in the pan. These often-clever animations succeed in doing two things consistently: 1) wasting precious time getting the information to site visitors and 2) delaying delivery of the message that the company or organization wants visitors to see. Effective web design relies on communicating information and the message in an attractive, efficient manner. The concept of "you only get one chance to make a good first impression" is jeopardized when a new visitor has to endure the "loading" message. Often, the Flash opening has little to do with the reason the visitor typed in the URL or clicked the link in the first place. For example, one marketing firm's homepage opens with a Flash montage featuring a boy looking out over the ocean through a telescope, cats playing on a floor, a close-up of a man's lower face covered with powdered sugar and the interior of a cab festooned with mosaic tile. The relevance of all this to the firm's capabilities as far as meeting marketing communications needs escapes us. But don't misunderstand. Using programs that add some spice to your site or your message is a smart use of current technology (see www.zyman.com, for example). Designers just have to make sure that your message - "We can meet your business needs" - are part of the Flash effort. Also, make sure that the Flash introduction includes an opt-out link ("Click here to skip intro") and doesn't run for more than 15 seconds or so. The idea is to draw visitors into the site and engage them, not to overwhelm them with cool gimmicks or how much money you spent developing your site. As non-engineers or non-designers put it, just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should just for the sake of doing so. Chris Scott heads Hodge Media Group, the custom publishing arm of Hodge Communications, Inc. Hodge specializes in strategic public relations and marketing communications for businesses, entrepreneurs and professional associations. Formerly an award-winning journalist, he brings over 20 years of experience to client engagements. Subscribe today to Communic@te! our free bimonthly e-newsletter and get a free special report: "Using Buzz To Create a Groundswell For Your Business." Visit http://www.hodgecommunications.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Converting Traffic into Sales Making a successful online business can be a long and tiresome adventure. For most new online business's this can just lead to failure and a website that just isnt making sales despite a high number of visitors. Why You Should Use CSS It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness. 7 Benefits of HTML Validation You may not bother with html validation or writing simpleand clean code when designing your web site. Later you mayfind your site is slow loading, appears incorrectly in themain browsers and does not rank well for the major searchengines. What Drives Repeat Visitors To Your Site? There can be zillions of reasons why your visitors return to your web site. One might be very interested in seeing your animated photo on your main page, but kidding aside I've gathered 12 elements that invites your visitors to repeat their visits. Love at First Site: Giving Your Website Visitors the right Impression Think of the people who visit your site as blind dates. When youopen the door, your blind date usually knows whether they areattracted to you within the first minute. 50 Surefire Web Design Tips Tips to brand your websiteInclude your logo in all pages. Position it at the top left or each page. 6 Reasons Why Web Templates Are Todays Trend As the Internet blooms at an alarming rate, so as the numberof websites out there. Appearance, layout, presentation andloading times are just a few of the main essentialcharacteristics of a successful website. How to Chose Stock Photography for your Web Site So you've decided to take the plunge. You know that stock photography is an effective tool for your web business, but where do you start and how do you choose the stock photo that's right for you. What to Ask Your Web Designer If you need a web designer, but have no clue about the typical web design process, I am quite certain that you must be feeling a bit overwhelmed about what to expect. As web designers, we oftentimes have a myriad of roles to fill when working with their clients, but as the client, you always have a right to know the complete design process up front. How To Shop for a Web Design Firm? While few companies can boast as we do that our first ten clients are still with us today, many companies often change Web design firms to get a new perspective on how their Web presence could look and perform. The following paragraphs serve as a Buyer's Guide to use when shopping for a new Web design company. Ten Basic Steps For Building A Web Site That Works 1. Assemble a web site development plan that is integrated with your overall marketing processes; the content should be consistent with offline materials, the graphics/images don't have to be identical with traditional media, but should be consistent with your overall branding, style guide, usage of colors etc. Through The Looking Glass My mother used to take me along when she visited an old ladydown a cobbled lane who had a crystal ball on her dining roomtable and a pack of playing cards. My mother was superstitiousand really believed a lot of what she was told by the old lady. How To Use Color Effectively When You Create A Web Site Colors are powerful, and create strong feelings. They can also make your web site look professional - or look like a circus. Choosing Your Web Design We would all like to have the best looking website, that's a fact - but if we keep in mind that our main objective is to finally sell our product or service online, we'll realize that maybe design is not the most important factor when it comes to achieve this objective.Professional design is probably the most time consuming part of the web development, so my first tip would be, before you are contacting a Web Design Company, to browse the Internet for companies which offer similar services and products - you will find probably hundreds of them - save in your Favorites four or five websites which you really like, print out these, and show the printouts to as many people as you can, especially to your existing customers, and ask them which one it's more likely is to make them take an action (contact, buy, subscribe) on the site. TEN Answers That Turn Your Visitors Into Your Customers You know.. 404 Error - The Page Cannot be Found A "404 Error" happens when the web server you are on cannot find the page that you requested. This type of error is quite common and is seen all over the place. Increase Your Credibility With Web Site Awards Web Site Awards are given from other sites to reward your site for a specific reason. They will usually give you an award graphic or text link to include on your site if you win. Web Design: How To Get Your Visitors To Stay Remember the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come"? In the world of Internet marketing, you not only want them to come, you want them to stay.The Internet is fast-paced. The Top Ten Checklist For Low Web Site Sales You have good traffic, but low client sign ups and other sales. Web sites are only as good as their copy. Is Your Web Site Turning Visitors Away? One of the biggest problems with Web sites is that the very first pageon the site is turning people away.Why? Because most Web site owners talk about themselves instead oftalking about their Web site visitor.
|
| home | site map |
| Webdesign-box © 2006 |
