Should your web site have animations and huge images?
Have you ever had a chance to read a book about web design? If you haven't, try to put aside some time to read one. You will learn that having a web site containing flash or java animations and huge images is rarely a good idea, because one of the basic principles of great web design is not to have a heavily equipped web site, but to have a web site that looks great and loads quickly for any speed level of internet connection. The reason is quite obvious and simple: Heavily equipped web sites tend to load slowly and that alone can push your visitors to search and buy on somebody else's quicker-loading web site.Do some research about this subject and surf the Internet. You will notice that plenty of web sites – including professional ones and web sites with great rankings – sometimes use Flash headers, intros and large images.
It may seem confusing to you as to why some great web sites use heavyweight elements that are noted as bad throughout any knowledgeable book or article. You may ask yourself then: Why is using heavyweight multimedia items bad when such attractive and popular web sites use it? That's actually an excellent question. The only reasonable answer is that a high percentage of web sites misuse multimedia items. Whenever you are in doubt, it is always easier to exclude such elements, than to use them and risk losing your visitors.
However, there are times when adding multimedia items in a sophisticated way is a smart idea, such as when...
- A web site's business goal is to sell the products for which the look is an important part of the sales process. Any visitor interested in such products would surely like to see some images of the products of interest. It is a good idea to have thumbnails on a web page displaying a list of products. These thumbnails should have larger versions of the images that can be displayed upon clicking on the thumbnail. Such an approach makes web pages with lists of product items load faster and allows interested visitors to see larger versions of product images if they wish.
- A web site might offer tours and demonstrations of a product or service online, or you might just wish to allow visitors to see a product in action. Using animation for purposes like these is a legitimate design idea, yet again, it must be managed with caution. Your visitors should always have the option to choose whether they prefer watching an animation or a video, or not. Take YouTube, as an example: When you open that popular web site, you are not forced to view every video that is there. They have left you with a choice of what to watch. By making your web site as lightweight as possible you are showing that you give your web site visitors the same respect. Also, the best practice is to avoid animated GIFs. Animated GIFs never seem professional. Invest in creating a Flash animation or a video only if your web site has such needs.
- Your web site business offers a service with a great deal of visual elements needed to support it. For example, if your online web site business is offering Flash or Java animation, or video editing, then for sure your web site visitors will want to have the ability to see an example of your work. Use a separate page for such a purpose. That will ensure that your web site visitors have the option of watching this or not. Don’t force your web site visitors to watch your service samples on your home page.
For any questions you might have, please ask the Attention Interactive Los Angeles Web Design And Development team, so you can take the fastest route to your business goals.
