JUNE 2005
This month I had a topic request about animations for the newsletter. If you would like to see something featured in this newsletter drop me an email. I would love to hear your ideas and comments.
Thanks!
Kim Adams, President, Tiger Studios, Inc.
Ask Tiger Studios
A: Each web site project is different so where one site might look okay with three animations because the page is very long, another site might max out with just one animation. Rule of thumb should be if you are getting up to three animations on the web page you should revisit the decision to use all three. Maybe one animation can be converted to a regular graphic or not used at all. Rollover of buttons are not considered animations. |
When To Say When On Animation
Web site owners use Flash animations or animated GIFs on their web sites — for useful and not so useful reasons. A professional web site designer can guide the owner on what is best for usability of their site and their customer base. Without a designer, placing a large number of animations on the page could confuse or irritate their customers. Why? They are so distracted with the multiple animations that they don't see anything else on the page. When do you say enough to the amount of graphics and text flashing on and off one web site page?
How And When To Use Animation.
Use animation where it seems appropriate and not because you think you need it. If you are going to have advertising on your site, and some of those ads will be animated, then maybe you need to rethink your rotating images animation that takes up a third of the web page. If you are an architect or building developer, a rotating animation of recent projects or buildings might be a good idea to add to the web site. Instead of listing a bunch of small project images the potential client can't make out well you can take that space and enlarge the images while you cycle through them. This creates a much better and useful portfolio space.
Don't Use Irritating Animation.
Some animation should never be used just because of it's irritation factor to the user. Don't use violently flashing text to get a customer's attention or animated banners or figures that say the same message over and over again. These animations could drive your customers away and if you drive them away they may not come back to hire you or buy your products.
Be Careful About An All Animation Web Site.
All Flash web sites can be just as nice as HTML and graphic web sites but an all Flash site is not search engine friendly. Until the search engines evolve and can accurately scan the content of your Flash animation I would leave this option alone. Unless you are not interested in having customers and clients find your site via a search engine search.
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A Little About Tiger Studios
Kim Adams started Tiger Studios in 1999 as a one stop shop for all aspects of web site design, graphic design and web site development. We are here to help client's develop a professional, creative business image in both print and the Internet. Because we treat each customer special, have quick turn around on projects, and create custom graphic and web site design each time, we have a high client retention rate.
To learn more about Tiger Studios and our services, check out our web site www.Tiger-Studios.com or contact Kim Adams at mail@Tiger-Studios.com for a free estimate of your next web site or graphic design project.