web distractions

We often discuss what features or content we should have on our web site. But rarely do we reflect on what we ought not to have.

Whistles and bells may make us look happening and hip to the latest technology and web trends. But do they add anything to our web site visitor’s experience? Or, indeed, could we be shooting ourselves in the foot by distracting the visitor from their informational goal? Could those cutting-edge web features we have amassed over time be, in fact, weapons of mass distraction?

Let’s send in the inspectors and see.

[Their Mission: to find hidden weapons and report back with conclusions]

Animated GIFs

Once considered cool. Now looking decidedly naff. Tests show users find them annoying, especially if they do not contribute any information or constantly catch their eye while trying to read text.

Conclusion: Are they necessary? Would they be missed if decommissioned?

Flash movies

Again, the test here is: do they bring anything to the party in terms of information or converting the casual visitor into a customer. Perceived danger of Flash movies making web site owner appear self-indulgent. Worst still, by far, is the impact on download times.

Conclusion: Assume your visitors are impatient, easily frustrated and using a slow connection. If you do have a Flash movie as a gateway to your site, at least have a ‘Skip movie’ option outwith the movie frame to allow visitors to go directly to your home page. Also include as a courtesy a link to download Flash (http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash). Flash Player 6, the latest version, is only a 404k download, so it should take a reasonably short time to download and instal even with a slow dial up connection.

Weather forecasts

A lot of sites have these familiar boxes somewhere on their home page. Okay, it’s local information, but they can dramatically affect page download times.

Conclusion: Are you sure your visitors would like to know what the weather is like? On a tourism site, say, fair enough. But on your pet food site..?

Strong suspicion proliferation of weathercasts has more to do with frequency of the keyword ‘weather’ showing up as a search engine query. You naughty webmasters! Just put the box further down the page.

Embedded links

Embedded links littered injudiciously can serve only to break up the flow of text.

Conclusion: Embedded links in text should be used sparingly, be relevant and aid the reader’s understanding of the subject being discussed. Too many links can divert the reader from getting to the end of the text and spin him or her off at a tangent onto another site. A helpful compromise is to add links in full at the end of your text. Visitors can then read the text in one continuous flow before leaving to check the links. Listing the links in this way also assists visitors who decide to print out the page to read offline.

While these features above are often cited as the main offenders, be aware there are others lurking around to spin traffic out of our web sites. What we are involved with is, in the final distillation, social engineering.

The web is a pull technology, i.e. people find us because they want something. They have a goal in mind and are potentially a hot sales lead. Our job is to keep them interested, and laser-guide them quickly and efficiently to a target that, hopefully, is the same as ours. Kerrching!