Re: Animation on a website

Brian Sinclair wrote:

>>Load time is the big reason developers don't like animation.  Clients like
>>it because it looks "alive" like you say, but my opinion is that animation
>>drives the average surfer away.
----------

Demitrius added:

>I *knew* I forgot to mention something! Yes, I agree that fat animations
>(20k+) that take a long time to load with a dial-up connection are a big
>mistake. That is *not* what I'm talking about.
>
>I'm speaking of animations that are around 15k in size or less. You can do a
>lot in that size range.
>
>I'm curious about your comment, "my opinion is that animation drives the
>average surfer away." What do you base this opinion on? I'm not trying to be
>argumentative, I truly want to understand the basis for that point of view.
>What facts are you referencing that I'm missing?
>
>Regards,
>Demitrius >I<
---------------

Well, Demitrius, you *know* I like animation. I think it adds a lot to a
web site.
I'm not really the techy type person; I'm the 'artistic type,' and have
always been on the side of graphic designers, rather than the text-only
type people, or, of course, the kinds of people that scream at graphic
intensive sites and exit quickly. We could talk all day on that subject, as
you all well know. I guess, being the artistic type, of course you know
where I'm at.

On the other hand, if the animations/graphics are done correctly, there
really isn't any room for complaint; however, issues arise when the
majority of the "content" is graphical (i.e search engines trying to index
a mostly graphical site).

Now, although a 20k+ animation is really raw when it comes to an in line
image in the middle of content pages (sometimes), experience has shown me
that if each of my frames are less than, say 1k (most of the time 600 to
800 bytes) then the animation is very close to streaming. And, they are
quite large frames, but most of the time they are text with a little
imagery, and splash pages.

Most of my luck with animations is due to Ulead, but, hey, that is another
day, another list.

I agree with Demitrius when it comes to clients. I have a currently have a
client that said just what he mentioned: "There's no animation on this
site. It looks boring. Static. Not alive"

They said they wanted, what they called, "More interactivity."

As Figment noted, I too have fallen in love with Flash. We recently created
a flash alternative splash page for the same client mentioned above, and
the practically fell out of their chairs; as simple as the flash animation
was, they thought it was gold, compared to what they were used to seeing. 

And, of course, the alternative gif animation that displays for people who
don't have the plugin is equally small, *almost* streaming, as close to
flash as one could get.

Flash Splash for Progressive Systems:
NOTE: if you are using MSIE you might not see it because of the meta
refresh. The page is still under construction, and the flash animation s
not perfected yet. (i.e. the last frame ends too quickly)

Netscape 4 Users:
<http://www.ais-gwd.com/~fusion/progsys/intro.html>

MSIE 4 users (low quality)
<http://www.ais-gwd.com/~fusion/progsys/splash2.swf>

And the optional gif animation to compare is at:
<http://www.ais-gwd.com/~fusion/progsys/images/splash007.gif>

Although, these leave a lot for improvement, I think they represent what
businesses want. They want to be "flashy," they want to be noticed, they
want something that sets the apart. Of course they do. I do not think it
drives them away, as Brian Sinclair stated. I think that if its done
correctly, it will, perhaps, catch their attention and just might persuade
them to dig deeper into the site. 

So, yes, I am a big fan of animation-- gif, flash or otherwise.
You can see the rest of the Progressive Systems work in progress via link
in my sig.

Have a great day,

b.

  


shouldn't   your   business  be   on  the  web ?
brian j. | [i.c.q. 1057986] fusion(at)greenwood.net
f r e e l a n c e graphic designer/web developer
fusion design <<<<http://www.fusionwerks.com>>>>

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