Comment Articles

Web animation: Do you watch it or skip it?

Mike Sockol for ZDNet.com AnchorDesk

Published: 25 Apr 2002 14:39 BST

Skipping is in vogue in our interactive age.

Consider the ubiquitous home page "splash" screen, the animated Web appendage that enriched early Macromedia investors and infuriates many usability experts. Sometimes, clever introductory animations provide just enough interactivity to make them charming, such as BMW's new Mini Cooper site. But these hefty, kinetic introductions quickly tire most repeat visitors, especially when they access these sites with dial-up connections. In response, many sites include "skip" links that allow users to bypass the floating images and digital riffs.

Something is seriously amiss when you need to incorporate escape mechanisms that allow your audience to avoid important messages. Skip links suggest that these carefully crafted animations may actually be superfluous, a point inadvertently driven home by the USC Annenberg School of Communications, which offers the courtesy of two skip functions on its home page. One allows you to avoid the animation now while the other banishes it forever.

We know that most Web users do not read entire pages; they simply glance quickly to find what they consider most important. This latent impatience encourages some designers to borrow the visual tactics of advertising to catch our eyes and curiosity (Flash animation being the most dramatic example), when the real focus should be the clear presentation of essential content.

Why? We encounter advertising accidentally, as a component within another source of information or amusement (such as a magazine or TV show) or an intrusion in our normal activities (such as a billboard on a highway). Despite early media emphasis of the Internet as a browsing medium, Web users generally know what they want to find, and they will place a premium on editorial, rather than promotional content.

For instance, I have an ageing Subaru station wagon, and I am currently looking at information about new cars. With a young family in tow, I am particularly interested in cargo space. The folks at Jeep thought it might be fun to create a downloadable animation that shows how much stuff you can fit in their new Liberty SUV...