This week we’re going to cover something that everyone loves
but not too many people think enough about. When thinking about having their own website, people immediately just want to put as much content on as possible
without considering the consequences. “I want pictures and videos and sound and
games and moving things and…and…” That is a sentence web developers hear far
too often. In this topic we’ll have a quick look at some of the different media
types possible on the Internet and why you probably shouldn't use them on your
website.
First up is graphics, pictures, images, whatever you want to
call it. Graphics are a basic necessity in most websites and frankly the
Internet just wouldn't be the same without the 14 million pictures of cute
cats. Websites can be made to look extremely appealing with the appropriate use
of graphics, but sometimes…well people just go over the top. Layering a hundred
different images is not a good idea. Having a huge image as a background is not
a good idea. Although the speed of the Internet around the world is slowly
improving having a website that takes longer than a couple of seconds to load
will mean that visitors will abandon it before they see your first “amazing
ocean view”.
The second media type we’ll touch on is animated graphics.
The primary type of animated graphic on the Internet is the trusty “gif” (with
varying pronunciations) but now there is a newer type that goes hand in hand
with modern browsers called a “webm” (although it still has a few issues).
These file types are, in my opinion, very over used. Moving things on a website
is usually a distraction and honestly if there were lots of moving things on a
website I would leave the site quite quickly. Obviously you can use them if you
wish however, please, for the sake of all Internet users, use them sparingly
and tastefully.
Something that is pretty close to animated graphics is
animated text. Text flying in from the side belongs in a music lyric video and
not on your professional website. If you feel the need to have scrolling text
or make it look like your words are burning then you seriously need to
reconsider that idea. I’ll admit, when this sort of thing was all new
and exciting it was awesome to have words that dissolved in front of you but
after about five minutes it got boring. Really boring. In terms of the Internet
animated text is extremely old fashioned and there are a lot more opportunities
available with modern technologies to make your website look clean, classy and
professional.
Videos are a bit of a hit and miss. On one hand they can add
some wonderful content to a website and do not add to the loading time at all
if you allow the user to choose when to play the video because all modern
standards mean that the video is streamed piece by piece and not all at once.
On the other hand you have videos like those on Facebook. You know those
annoying things you see because one of your so called “friends” liked
something? It automatically plays in your news feed unless you choose to turn
the feature off (which the option for is buried deep in account settings). If
you are on a mobile device this chews up your data allowance faster than
anything else and a lot of the time the video is not something you actually
want to see.
The final media type I’ll look at here is sound and the
answer is no.
Never. Just don’t do it. The fact is that sound or music on a
website is horrible. The majority of the time the user is already listening to
music and/or doesn't want it to be interrupted by your “soothing whale noises”
that you have automatically playing in your website and of course you didn't
include a button to turn it off because “why would anyone want to turn it
off?”. If a user specifically went to your website to hear noises or sounds or
music then they will not be bothered by one more button that says “Play” on it
and that is the end of the discussion right there.
Till next time
Alec :)
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