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Why Flash intros are bad

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Wombat
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 12:06 am    Post subject: Why Flash intros are bad Reply with quote

Jakob Nielsen wrote:
The fastest way to lose new users is to have a big beautiful graphic or Flash movie on a "splash" page that has no useful information or navigation on it. Period.

I know that the people who make those huge Flash intros really love them, but for the rest of us they are a real turn-off. At my office we call it "flashturbation", because it's a form of self-gratification that no-one else wants to watch. Evil or Very Mad


Last edited by Wombat on Tue Apr 01, 2003 5:45 am; edited 1 time in total
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Posideon
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 12:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeh I also picked up on thast one.... quickly showed my web developing friend who's into flash, straight into a HTML book he was. Laughing
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ThePsyko
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 1:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Heh, I've always been a big believer in the "less is more" approach when it comes to loading times... if my page is going to be slow, I'd prefer it was because of a script running in the background doing something useful than showing everybody a big flashy picture of whatever.. For the longest time my site was < 1MB.. only reason its gotten larger than that is the databases which I am slowly but surely implementing...
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igir3dsk1
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 2:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yea but there is nothing wrong in using a small one, Am I wrong? Very Happy
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Wombat
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 2:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

igir3dsk1 wrote:
Yea but there is nothing wrong in using a small one, Am I wrong? Very Happy


Yes there is something wrong with using a Flash intro, big or small. It doesn't add any useful content, it takes time to load (even if it's small), it discriminates against the millions of partially-sighted people who use screen-readers, it discriminates against the millions of people who don't have the Flash player, it puts an extra click between your visitors and your site... need I go on?
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igir3dsk1
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 2:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very Happy I got the idea. What about if somebody that you work for ask you to do it?
Will you try to convice him? Or will you just do it with out saying something?
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Wombat
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 2:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes I'll try to convince them. If a client asks me to do something that I think is a bad idea, I explain to the client why I think it's a bad idea and I suggest a couple of better alternatives. After all, they are paying me for my experience and expertise, and it's my job to give them the best service I can. However, if after listening to my advice they decide that they know best and they insist on going with the bad idea, I give them what they want, because ultimately it's their site and their money.
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squidly
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 3:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wombat wrote:
Yes I'll try to convince them. If a client asks me to do something that I think is a bad idea, I explain to the client why I think it's a bad idea and I suggest a couple of better alternatives. After all, they are paying me for my experience and expertise, and it's my job to give them the best service I can. However, if after listening to my advice they decide that they know best and they insist on going with the bad idea, I give them what they want, because ultimately it's their site and their money.


And its your what you are hired to do. If you had an employee who does not do what you want him to do.. you fire him. Heck where I work they have the WORST email system (Lotus Notes). But I use it because Im paid to use it (as well as doing other things)
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igir3dsk1
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 8:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's what I'm talking about, I talked to this guy told him that,there is nothing special in that,that wont make the page especial or what ever,but he is the boss...
I think the same as you,it is better to have a web site with real contenct, than a stupid web site full of animations.
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GSecur
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2003 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Flash intro's are a complete waste of bandwidth worst still is when the option to skip is not made available.

Flash can be used on a site to increase usability or the "polish" of a page. An Examples is.

Creating a flash based menu bar for navigation. (Please have a text based way of navigation somewhere on the page so people with flash un-friendly browsers can still navigate)

Quote:
What about if somebody that you work for ask you to do it?
Will you try to convice him? Or will you just do it with out saying something?


I convince most of my clients be simply saying they will neglect the majority of their audience and hence, make less ROI from the site. Wink
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suanie
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2003 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As a 'normal' net user, I tend to find flash intros irritating and a waste of my downloading time.

EG : big giant shipping company : http://www.nacora.com has this flash intro that serves absolutely no purpose.

And a local ISP : http://www.tm.net.my with a useless flash intro when they could have used their free time to improve their net services.

And having to HAVE to click on 'skip' irritates me too.

Down with flash intros!
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ShaolinTiger
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2003 6:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most the time the SKIP buttons don't even work..

You have to click them about 5 times and occasionaly it will skip it.

NO FLASH INTROS! Thats f**ing GAY!
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browolf
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2003 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

in theory they might seem like a good idea. I wonder if people who think flash intros are good are people who probably have slow computers and think websites are in some way like computer programs. Slow loading programs are more accepted than slow loading websites. I remember later versions of corel draw being particularly bad on slower computers.

They're a good way of making a percentage of web users have a negative view of the site before they've even seen any content, if they dont leave b4 the intro ends Smile

that said i've seen some really neat sites made in flash.
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GSecur
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2003 7:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Most the time the SKIP buttons don't even work..


That's because they don't know how to program actionscript right. The put the code for the button inside of the same timeline as the movie.

One of my developers still can't get this through his skull Evil or Very Mad
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Wombat
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2003 1:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

browolf wrote:
that said i've seen some really neat sites made in flash.

That's different. I agree that sometimes a Flash site can work really well, as long as the use of Flash is appropriate for both the content and the target audience. But a Flash intro for an HTML site is just plain wrong.
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big tom
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2003 1:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i have seen sites that have flash into's that arn't all that bad.
They actualy had information about the site. kind of a bullet point hing to get peple interested.

It was a site for city apartemnts. it had pictures of the apartments and had info about them pop up etc...

Other than that i think the only other reason for flash intro is if it was for a flash dsign company, who needed to show off their capabilities at firrst glance.

like the old rayoflight.org intro
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