Class, Not Flash! (No Animations, Please.)
I thought I'd share a lesson I learned while visiting so many websites lately. It's a very easy lesson.
Simple is always the best way to go. On Facebook, it's fun to see gifs in comments or flashing lights but honestly? It's not a fun experience for a website visitor.
If I see animations, I hit the back button in my normal website visiting. One that is there to make a point is okay. An ENTIRE article filled with gifs is seriously overwhelming, annoying, and unnecessary and I will leave the site, ASAP.
Unfortunately, I'm trying to do Site Feedback and Site Comments, at least once a day. I try to give people a little more patience. I can't point out the flaw in their design in Site Comments, but you bet I point those out in Site Feedback.
What NOT to Do on a Website
- Animations - HUGE No. No gifs, no sparkly whatever, no flashing lights, no shockwave, no. It's annoying. It can set off seizures in epilepsy suffers. It slows down your site. It's just bad.
- Floating Social Media Icons - ....why? Seriously? They make me REFUSE to touch them. They taunt me the whole time I'm on the website. They move and they're distracting.
- Bright colors - don't blind your audience
What is GOOD on a Website
- White background, black text. You can spice it up by using a light gray background, if you want. But really. White background, black text. Add faint, appealing colors to the OUTSIDSE of the main blog roll.
- Simple, appealing STATIC pictures. They shouldn't move.
- Simple but readable is better than busy and distracting.
You Don't Want to Make Your Audience Sick
I got a little motion sick from one website, just because I've got a minor headache, I'm very hot right now, and already tired, and too many moving things just made me motion sick. I'm not even exaggerating. I tried to stick it out and that was my mistake. If I wasn't so hot, tired and headachey, I'd have probably been fine.
But y'all. Simple is best. Don't add crazy to your website. The content is what matters. Spice it up with a picture or two. A video. But crazy graphics that move or sparkle? You're doing your business in.
Honestly, I don't think anyone loved them when there were popular in the late 90s and they definitely are not in fashion now. They look tacky. They are a distraction, and not a pleasant one. Don't sabotage your business by adding extras where you need none.
Class, not flash, folks!
Lovies!
Recent Comments
16
Good advice. It's a major distraction. Your visitors are looking for information and recommendations.
Cheers
Michael
Yeah, it makes no sense to distract your audience from your content at all. If they're looking at flashy colors and moving social media buttons, they're not paying attention to how awesome you think this product is.
They were probably wondering how to get those buttons to stop moving. Hee.
I agree with you. 100%.
If I want to watch things moving around, I'll choose to watch a YouTube video. But, I don't want the video to start playing by itself either.
I agree! I hate it when they automatically start playing too!
But when so many things are moving, I don't even get to read what's on the site. It's seriously distracting. I want to read the content, not have to find the annoying video and turn it off. LOL!
I don't mind a video embedded in the post, that isn't what I am talking about. I just read a site where ALL the images (and there were one image every other paragraph) were gifs. Moving, annoying gifs you'd see on Facebook comments or in your feed. Like, what?
Then add pop-ups and that moving social media button thing, I really should have left.
Hi
Interesting blog.
Not sure if I totally agree or not yet lol.
Some good points you make, but am wondering if depending on your subject would depend on what you put on your site, you may need some flashy things as part of your discussion.
Just a thought.
You got me thinking though
Kind Wishes
Daisy
One flash for something specific or an embedded video you can turn on when you want isn't a problem.
It's a problem when things are moving on the page, buttons are trying to move to stay on the left-hand side, and pictures are moving, and it's distracting the audience from what you're trying to write. Flashy stuff is only going to appeal to a small percentage of people. Minimal design that forces them to focus only on your written content, with attention-seeking fonts for your call-to-action is WAY better than 14 gifs in one 800 word post.
Plus a moving social media buttons... I can't even stress enough how distracting that is.
The moving social media buttons and pop ups definitely annoying and distracting. Thanks so much for your advice
Kind wishes
Daisy
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Apparently the new look of my website is a disaster from some people´s point of view. I don't have gif:s, but I have a new animated header on my site. I think it´s fabulous, of course, but let´ s see what other people think.
I have a unicorn website, and that´s a very different niche from "make money online" niche, for example. My audience wants to see cute and colorful things.
Give me the link to your website, I'll go take a look. It's not a matter of the niche. It's that moving stuff really takes away from the reading or whatever article is going on. It's distracting for your visitors, usually, especially if it's over the top. One little give or animation in an article is okay, but when things are pulling attention away from your content, Google doesn't like it (with accessive stuff being in the way of the content), visitors don't like it, and it makes your content not so high quality if your visitors bounce right after seeing it. But I can take a look and see if it's that bad.
Nevermind, I found it. Okay, I have to admit, there is WAAAY too much stuff going on there. You have background images behind the recent posts stuff, that makes it hard to read the actual stuff. I enclosed a screenshot to show you what I mean. When images make it hard to read your content, people aren't going to read it.
I mean, it might appeal to a kid who likes unicorns. But to an adult, that flashy image heading is not really attractive.
So this is going to be dependant on your target audience. You need to think about your audience, not what you want. Is your audience young kids who like unicorns? Then cutsie stuff with some gifs and animations might be okay. Or is it adults who like unicorns? Because I like unicorns as an adult, but I wouldn't be attracted to the visuals on your site. My version of a unicorn that I love nowadays is graceful and beautiful, not cutsie animation that I liked as a young girl.
But I didn't read your content and don't know who your target audience is. That said, I'd stay away from an animation THAT big and distracting. Plus certain people have seizure disorders where flashing lights and animations might cause a seizure. So don't go crazy.
That said, that's just my personal opinion. I included images of two unicorns I personally would love on a unicorn site. The stuff you're using doesn't appeal to me at all, despite the fact I do like unicorns and love reading fantasy. But I'm 39 and I like graceful realism like the two unicorns below, not cutsie stuff like that anymore. Except maybe on a pair of socks or boxers, then it might be cool.
So it's going to depend on your audience and the direction you're going. Keep in mind, that's my opinion and I'm not trying to put your website down. I may not be your target audience. It's just too much cutsie unicorns overloading the page, in my opinion. I don't think a lot of it is necessary.
Even targeting kids, I'd use cute images within my content, and maybe a unicorn logo with your site name in the corner of your heading or included in your heading, but moving... yeah, it's pretty distracting.
Actually, I have that second unicorn image you enclosed on one of my posts. I´m 33, and I like both graceful unicorns and super cute animated unicorns, and I have both of them on my site. I know there are other adults like me, who haven't fully grown-up.
I'm not going to give up on cute unicorn pictures, I like to have both realistic graceful unicorns, and cute illustrated unicorns. But you´re probably right about the animations. I probably went a little over the top with them.
I liked the look of my old theme, so I think I´ll just go back to it. Animations might be distracting for some people. Some people might like them.
But to be honest, I think they´re distracting myself. A positive distraction, because I like them, but I just keep staring on them and designing graphics instead of focusing on writing my content.
I appreciate your honest feedback, and maybe the new look on my website is a little too much, because you didn't even notice the graceful unicorn look is also present on many of my posts.