Special Effects: Quick Chuckle or Quick Getaway?

By Paula Mariedaughter and Jeanne Neath

Special effects like animated cartoons, moving banners, or glowing text can capture the attention of web site visitors. Well-conceived and well-executed special effects can delight your customers and help convey your message. But, beware! Boring, irrelevant or distracting special effects cause visitors to click their mouse—and make a fast getaway! When you add special effects to your site be sure they are an integrated part of the site design and an integrated part of your sales strategy. Consider our examples.

To emphasize the superior commitment to service that our client, mamasloghousequiltshop.com, offers, we included her motto, “Where the ordinary becomes the exceptional,” in the logo area. A gold highlighting glow behind the motto blinks slowly five times every time the Home page is opened - and then stops. Whenever the visitor grazes the area of the motto with her mouse the glow reappears as a steady highlight. Our goal was to call attention to the message in the motto. By limiting the speed and the number of repetitions, this special effect remains a novelty on the page.

Fast moving graphics on the computer screen are only attention grabbers and cannot display content! To exhibit the gallery quality artwork of Terrell Sundermann, we used a slow moving gallery located in the logo area to feature ten of her custom, pieced Roman shades. This prominently placed slide show gives every visitor to terrelldesigns.com an immediate view of some of Terrell’s best designs, quickly establishing her expertise and introducing visitors to her pioneering artwork. The visitor can then delve into the site to see the many pages of original artwork, get help or purchase supplies for a do-it-yourself project. Essential for this special effect to work effectively were top quality photos, a slow moving presentation to allow time to see each slide, and the prominent location.

Every web site is a collaboration between the business owner(s), and the web site developers. The owner of The Twisted Stitcher indicated her desire for a web site with an abundance of animation and a playful attitude to display her unique quilt block socks. She came to us with two design ideas and asked us to translate them into a web site with personality. She wanted a dresser with drawers that opened and had her socks popping out. What you experience when you visit twistedstitcher.com begins when the cartoon sewing machine in her logo tumbles across the top of the page. Every time the sewing machine reaches the top right a different sock design is displayed with its accompanying rhyme. The dresser drawers became the navigation buttons with lots of fun items popping out of each drawer as the visitor moves from drawer to drawer. If this sounds over-the-top, then we succeeded in meeting our client’s request. The large number of dramatic special effects work well because this site sells fun socks and so having fun on the site is integral to the business—and web design—concept.

Slide shows and animations are our most requested special effect. It isn’t necessarily difficult or costly to add a special effect or two to your web site. But, make sure you know what message you want to convey with your special effects and stick to it! Keep the speed slow, limit how long the effect lasts, and/or give your visitors the option of turning off the effect. Chosen with care, special effects are an effective tool to draw customers and jazz up your site.