Animation and Scrolling Text

Avoid irritating code and images.

Opinion page by Duane Alan Hahn.

Have you ever visited a web site that seemed to have every kind of bouncing, dancing, scrolling, flipping, flopping, flapping thing that could possibly be squeezed onto the main page? Those types of sites are usually made by beginners who don't know that one of the most important things is to have their main pages load as fast as possible. If your main page loads in less than 20 seconds for people using 56k modems, you're doing pretty good.

Not only does having a ton of animated stuff on a main page take a long time to load, it usually looks trashy. Reminds me of those creepy people who overcrowd their front yards with random lawn ornaments. Many people will have less respect for a web site and the owner when the main page looks like the creator is clueless and has absolutely no common sense or discernment.

Unnecessary Cool Stuff

The more unnecessary 'cool stuff' that's put on a page, the slower it will load. This includes falling or rising objects such as leaves or snow, lake applets, graphics or text that follows the mouse pointer around the screen (mouse trails) or special downloads that change the shape of the mouse pointer. All of that extra junk can make a web site almost unreadable and hard to navigate too. It's not hard to understand that web sites should be easy to read and easy to use.

Flash Animation

Another huge problem is Flash animation. Flash isn't bad, it happens to be great, it's what most people will use in the future when we all have faster connections. The two mistakes that beginners tend to make are (1) creating Flash animations that animate continually, once is usually enough, and (2) creating animations that take too long to load.

A slow loading Flash animation is bad, but a slow loading Flash intro with no "skip intro" button is even worse. The only person who really cares about how much work you put into your Flash animation is you. If you must have a Flash intro, please provide a "skip intro" button for people who want a break from your ego.

Ego Intros

Many beginners create slow loading Flash "ego intros" that brag about how great they are or how great their web site is. If your site is so great, I should be able to see that for myself. Beating your chest like a gorilla just makes you look silly. Why don't you let your web site speak for itself?

Avoid Scrolling Text

Many beginners discover code that allows them to put scrolling text in the status bar sooner or later. I've even been to some web sites that had scrolling text in the title bar. The title bar and the status bar should be free from any kind of animation.

Scrolling text on a page gets old really fast anyway, but to put scrolling text in the status bar or the title bar where people cannot get away from it is similar to an attack. You just gave their browser a 'mini-virus' that they cannot get rid of until they leave your web site. Don't use scrolling text anywhere if you want to keep from annoying the crap out of most of visitors.

Another idiotic thing I have seen is where the whole page automatically scrolls down on its own. That is just plain wrong. Forcing people to read at the speed you decide is annoying and inconsiderate.

Most people don't like scrolling text. It's either too fast or too slow, so if it's worth reading, it's worth putting it in plain text so people can read it at whatever pace they like.

Shiny Objects

Don't be fooled by all of the web sites that claim that adding tons of animated junk to your web site will add value. They know that stuff doesn't add value, but they also know that beginners like 'shiny objects' and that means more ad revenue for them.

All of that garbage may impress other beginners, your friends, and family members, but everyone else will avoid your site. That's why people shouldn't use the glowing comments in their guest books as a defense for a cluttered, slow loading web site. There are people who would rave over candy coated cat crap if they had the chance. And if you think your visitors are so shallow that they need constant change and stimulation every second to stay interested, you might be better off without them.

Yes, I know, you sigh and wonder why most people can't see things in the wonderfully creative way that only you can, but if your creativity makes it hard for people to use your web site, what good is it?

There are only 26 letters in the alphabet, but there are millions of ways to express yourself with that handful of letters. Why not think of web design guidelines in the same way? Web design guidelines are like a flexible wire frame that allows you to build whatever you want over it.

There's no law that says you need to have a hard to read, hard to use, slow loading web site to express yourself. Why not do your best to make your web site as fast and as user friendly as possible while blending your artistic vision with it to make the best experience possible for your visitors?

Respect your visitors by trying your best to:

Give them good content.
Avoid annoying them.
Make pages load as fast as possible.

Your visitors will appreciate it.