Animation

In the right hands, animated content can be refreshing, compelling and effective. (Done poorly, it will drive consumers away in droves.) Our design philosophy is that animation works best when used in specific situations with focused objectives.

Animation Examples

Animation is Tricky

Jakob Nielson, the industry's foremost usability expert has this to say about animation:

"Flash [animation] should not be used to jazz up a page. If your content is boring, rewrite text to make it more compelling and hire a professional photographer to shoot better photos. Don't make your pages move. It doesn't increase users' attention, it drives them away; most people equate animated content with useless content."

So when (if ever) would you want to use animated content on your website? Only when three factors are aligned:

  • The user chooses to view the animated content (i.e. it isn't foisted upon them without their permission).
  • The animated content does something you can't do very well with still images or words, like tell a compelling story or demonstrate a process.
  • The animated content has a legitimate purpose (i.e. it doesn't exist for its own sake).

This is our credo when evaluating the use of animated content, and we're pretty hardcore about it (mainly because animation seems like crack cocaine to a lot of marketing folks). We regularly urge our clients to give up their dreams of dancing penguins on the home page and focus instead on content that is relevant, purposeful and non-moving.

That said, there still can be some great opportunities for animated content, but only when they meet the requirements above.

Story-based Branding

Our favorite reason for using animation (because it can be so effective) is to tell a story. We call this "Story-Based Branding" and, when paired with solid objectives, it can be a truly outstanding communication tool. Through SBB, you can share information that would normally put people to sleep if they had to read it in text form. Remember: people basically don't read on the web — they scan. This is where animated content can really shine -- transforming dry text material into a compelling visual story.

Flash Animation Experts

Our team is highly experienced with all aspects of Flash animation and development, from Actionscript to XML and database integration. So no matter how technically-challenging the project may be, we can make it happen.