By Andrew McClellan, Media Director,
Wood Street, Inc. (Published January 17, 2005)
We have all seen it and some of us may even be guilty of it…
the misuse of movement and animation on a web site. Sure it’s
tempting to use waving flags or animated intros with music, etc,
but is it necessary? Does it work?
Most of these types of animations are done with a program called
Macromedia Flash (a few of the simpler ones may be animated GIFs).
Now don’t get me wrong, developing Flash animations is one
of my passions.
Our Flash developers at Wood Street are actually certified so we
definitely see the benefit of Flash animations. However, there is
a difference between effective animations and distracting and ineffective
animations. Obviously, we promote the use of the first.
When considering the use of an animation or an animated web intro
you will want to ask yourself these questions:
- Do I need animation?
- What purpose does it serve in selling my product or promoting
my message?
- Does the animation reinforce my marketing message or brand?
- How much animation is appropriate? How much is too much?
- How will the animation affect my site’s usability?
Do I Need Animation?
More specifically, in what way would animation improve your site,
if at all? If you can’t come up with a list of at least 3
three things that an animation can do to improve the delivery of
your message online, don’t use it. There really needs to be
a compelling reason why you would use an animation on your web site.
Furthermore, these things can get expensive and sometimes cause
problems with your site usability (I will get into that in a second).
Your marketing dollars are at stake here. If you think this animation
is not going to help with your marketing efforts, don’t do
it.
If after this period of discovery you still feel that the animation
is relevant and can be an effective marketing tool for your site,
go for it! But make sure the animation is in the right spot, has
the right look, is constructed properly and delivers a relevant
message.
What Purpose Does It Serve in Selling My Product
or Message?
There are ways to use animation to explain who you are and what
you do that can be very effective. It is a good way of telling your
story, in an interesting and eye-catching way.
How is this animation working to enhance your web site? Some companies
will use an animation to illustrate a process that helps them differentiate
themselves from their competition. Some organizations will use an
animation to bring more attention to a specific issue by telling
a compelling story.
The key here is that your animation is supplemental. You don’t
want it to be your main message, your site’s content and layout
should be the place for that. The animation is just an extension
or reinforcement of your message. It is your chance to “illustrate”
your point.
Does the Animation Reinforce My Marketing Message
or Brand?
Sometimes it is tempting to add an animation because it is neat
or cute. But that may not be who you are and what your marketing
message is. If the animation you use does not sync with your marketing
message or brand, you may be doing more harm than good.
Your web site is part of your marketing efforts and marketing is
all about communication. If your animation doesn’t communicate
anything positive or contributory about your brand and/or marketing
message, it may be detracting from it. Again, this should be a supportive
element.
Think about ways to use the animation to support your message.
If you want to animate your logo, do it in a way that reinforces
its brand elements. A spinning logo does nothing more than distract
the viewer. Think about the animation as an instruction manual on
how to better understand the point or points you are trying to make
to the viewer. The viewer will use the manual if they need it and
if it helps, they are better off for using it. If it doesn’t
they are confused, frustrated and gone.
How Much Animation is Appropriate? How Much is
Too Much?
I hear a lot of complaints in my travels about long drawn out animated
intros. It is important to pay attention to the length of your animation
if it is set up to load before your home page. You also want to
make sure that if you are illustrating a point that you do it quickly
and specifically.
Eliminate the fluff and anything that is not absolutely pertinent
to the point you are making. Television commercials on average are
about 30 – 60 seconds. This is an eternity compared to the
time you have to grab and keep the attention of a web visitor. You
are dealing more in the range or 5-10 seconds, and leaning way more
on the 5 end of that range.
The other thing to consider here is what real estate on your site
will house this animation. You don’t want your whole page
to be spinning and flashing, that’s nothing more than a distraction
that will drive traffic away. Think of it this way, the visitor
should be able to scan the entire page within 5 seconds to determine
the following…
- Is this site what they are looking for?
- Do you they want to drill further into it?
- Do they understand what the site is telling them?
On a home page an involved long drawn out animation can really
get in the way.
Sometimes a long animation makes sense. Generally this is somewhere
on the site where the visitor voluntarily views the animation. You
may have a link that says “click here to view an animated
overview of our company” or something like that.
A good example of this is www.sgamerica.com. Click on the “View
our Interactive CD ROM” link. It is a great illustration of
their product line. But imagine if this animation were the first
thing you saw, you would get pretty impatient, pretty quickly.
Use your animation sparingly. If you think you are going too long,
you probably are and probably more than you think. Keep it simple
and straight forward and on main pages use the “5 second rule”.
How Will the Animation Affect My Site’s
Usability?
Flash animations require a plug-in. Most of your site’s visitors
will have this but some may not. The download for the plug-in is
easy to get and your browser will prompt you to get the plug-in
when it detects Flash. Most people will go ahead and download the
plug-in (it doesn’t take too long). But the ones that do not
will see a blank gray box where the animation should be. If that
big gray box contains navigation or pertinent content, that visitor
will not see it and probably leave.
You will also want to consider the animation’s load time.
Not everyone has high-speed internet and even if they do some are
faster than others. Some of these animations can take some time
to load especially if they are involved. Again, simplicity is key
here. The less information you have to present in this animation,
the quicker it will load.
The other thing I would recommend is to imbed your animations within
your page so they don’t interfere with the loading of other
content or navigation. A good example of this is www.800ezmicro.com.
The content and navigation load at the same time as, if not before,
the animations at the top and bottom. You are not forced to wait
for the animation to play out before you can dive right into the
rest of the site.
Now some people will do intro animations with a “skip intro”
button. But consider this, if the visitor is disinterested in the
animation enough to click that button, they are probably going to
get annoyed that this thing is in their way in the first place.
The only place I would recommend an animation that plays on its
own is somewhere deeper in the site where viewing it is optional.
Again, animations online can be powerful marketing tools. They
are incredibly effective tools to use when you really want to go
deeper with your message. You just need to be careful not to over
do it. And as we tell all of our clients, if you are not sure whether
or not to do something on your web site, ask your clients, members,
etc what they think. If they like the idea you are probably in good
shape.
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