Use animated GIFs very sparingly

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Animation can turn a blah, boring website into a work of art which draws visitors back again and again. That's rare because animation is generally not used very well.

I am sure you've seen sites which use animations so horribly that you hit the back button as fast as you can. You know, dozens of blinking, turning, twisting things scattered all over a web page, making it look more like a drug-crazed dream than anything useful.

Most webmasters go through several phases with animation.

1. Their site contains no animations at all because they don't know about it.
2. They learn about animation and cautiously add a few here and there.
3. Suddenly, they become addicted to animation, and their site gets hundreds of them per page.
4. Someone tells them this is bad and they remove all of them. After all, it's bad, right?
5. Some years later they learn the truth - animation when used properly is great, when used improperly is terrible.

All of us have run into the type #3, the site with animations everywhere. I've even seen pages which have over 100 animated GIFs per page, combined with blinking text, loud colors and strange fonts. Actually, it was quite a site. Almost a work of art ... 

So what kind of animations (animated GIFs, flash, dynamic HTML and so on) are appropriate for a web site? 

The thing to remember when adding anything to your site is simple. Ask yourself some questions:

• Is this enhancing my visitors experience? Whatever you add to the site should make it more likely that people stick around to view your site and come back later to view it again.
• Is this helping to meet the goal of the website? If the purpose of your site is to sell books, then only animations that further that purpose would be important. On the other hand, if you had a Star Trek fan site, then lots of little doodads that improved the Star Trek feeling might not only be appropriate, but are expected.
• Is this making the site load too slowly? It really don't matter how wonderful your animation is if it takes 60 minutes to download for one second of play time. Very few visitors are going to wait that long for anything.
• Does the page look jumbled and disorganized? One of the problems with adding to many animations is that it tends to make the pages look terrible. Unless you are specifically trying to create a jumbled look for some reason, clean, crisp and organized is usually better.
• Is the animation really necessary? An example is the trend towards using transition effects. You've seen those web sites where you click on a link and the new page kind of fades in, or a circle grows in the center of a page or the page slides in sideways. Yeah, these are cute, but in my humble opinion these are just silly tricks that slow down the visitor.

A very good rule of thumb regarding animations is "less is better". You can generally achieve a very nice effect with a couple of animations on a page. Keep the number and size down to reasonable amounts.

Additional Reading

• A poor design chases away visitors and gives you a bad name Design your site poorly and your visitors will go elsewhere
• There are many silly mistakes that you can make with text People come to your site for the content, and text is what they usually way. Make sure they can read it without being annoyed.
• Graphics are great unless you make some of these mistakes Graphics are great except when you make some of these stupid, idiotic mistakes. (See also Graphics Formats, Graphics Formats - GIF, Graphics Formats - JPG and Graphics Formats - PNG)
• Use animated GIFs very sparingly Animated GIFs are excellent when used properly, but it's easy to overdue it and chase away your visitors. (See also Graphics Formats - Animated GIFs).
• Be careful with various sound options Adding background sound to your pages is generally a mistake
• Video is tough to do correctly Careful with those videos - visitors like video but load times make it difficult to do correctly.
• Be sure and carefully plan your site navigation Carefully plan your site navigation or your visitors will not come back
• Layout your pages properly to keep people happy Plan your page and site layouts well to keep your visitors happy and fulfilled
• Use Java sparingly If you use Java without allowing for non-java visitors you will loose people immediately
• Don't use ActiveX on an internet site My advice is to not use ActiveX at all on an internet site. It's fine to use it on an Intranet site as you control the environment.
• Colors can make or break a web site Want to really lose your visitors fast? Use a bad combination of colors on your site! Make it look like an LSD nightmare.
• Organize your site Properly organized sites are a dream, disorganized sites are a nightmare
• Keep your pages relatively short Short pages are the rule in web design. One to three screenfuls is best, longer is a site killer.
• Advertising is a necessary evil You generally want to advertise but keep it short, simple and tasteful (See also The secrets of how to advertise your web site).
• Use Rings wisely Yes you want to use Rings, but don't use them incorrectly
• Careful with dynamic HTML Be careful with dynamic HTML. Can increase load time, make for slow, clunky sites, and is incompatible with earlier version browsers.
• Don't change the cursor unnecessarily Be careful with dynamic HTML. Can increase load time, make for slow, clunky sites, and is incompatible with earlier version browsers.
• Popups are stupid and obnoxious Don't use popups ever. They are annoying, stupid and scare away visitors
• Are Popups Ethical? Is it ethical to place popups and popunders all over your web site? Depends upon what you are trying to accomplish
• More on Popups, Popunders and other Unethical Behaviors There are many unethical devices such as popups, popunders and so forth. Are they needed or desired? No, they are not.

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