Animated Graphics = Sophisticated Website

According to Adobe, “Animated graphics add an exciting, sophisticated look to your website.” Really? Animated graphics will make my site look sophisticated? They follow that genius statement up with, “For example, you can make your company mascot dance across a page while the logo fades in and out.” Now THAT, is sophisticated. Adobe link.

Animated graphics, don’t by default, make your site better or more sophisticated or whatever. They may just be bloat. That isn’t to say they can’t, but saying they do just seems so 1998. It doesn’t help that Adobe gives such a poor example.

When making animation/graphic decisions, here are some good rules to follow:

1. Does it matter? Does the graphic add meaning to the message? If not, then its just filler and you should move on.
2. Will it be good in five years? Ten? Sure, five or ten years in Internet years is forever, but when you make yourself think of how something will look down the road, you may realize that your dancing baby graphic holding a banjo is really just lame.
3. Is it cute or funny? If it is, it probably isn’t. Lame web graphics have been around for a while and no matter how great that hot dog doing the macarena may seem, it isn’t that great.
4. Is the animation/graphic good? I realize this is subjective (like most things in design) but pick a site that you think is really great and see if you think that graphic would ever show up on their site. If you don’t think it would, then it isn’t good.
5. Don’t use an animated graphic when a static one will do the job just fine. Repetitive animation is annoying. We knew it ten years ago, we just didn’t know that we knew it. Dump the fast looping GIF for subtle or static. Your audience’s eyes will thank you.

Feel free to add your own rules to the list. Like most rules, these are [probably] made to be broken. The trick is to know when and how to break them. Thats where you win the cash and prizes.

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