Although the results are expected to cool in the wake of Leopard’s release, the reversal highlights several factors that provide Mac users a stronger incentive to upgrade outside of their normal computer replacement schedule than for Windows users, the report says. Microsoft is charging more for Vista in Japan, offering the upgrade-only Vista Home Premium package for 19,600 Yen ($179) and 30,300 Yen (£176) for a full version; Apple’s full standard OS sells for 14,700 Yen (£94). Pricing for the Mac version is also less intimidating and includes just a single version compared to the several full and upgrade copies of Vista buyers encounter in the store when updating their systems. Less stringent minimum requirements for Leopard compared to Vista upon their respective launches are also said to improve the appeal of the Mac OS.

“MyFootballClub members will own the club, vote on team selection, decide which players to buy and sell and guide the club up the leagues,” proclaimed the web site this morning. According to Reuters the club welcomes the fan involvement, with management looking forward to using the influx of cash to expand the club. “During and after matches, Ebbsfleet supporters often give me their opinion on which players should or shouldn’t start games. Now they can have their say,” Coach Liam Dash told the BBC.

The inability to choose your next closest neighbour has made for some unfortunate, but funny, “branding issues.”

“If you don’t have Third Party Property Insurance, we suggest you don’t hit this bus.”

Unfortunate Online Contextual Advertising

For online advertisers, the technology of contextual advertising has done wonders for helping match advertisers with interested audiences. However, this technology is far from perfected.

The following are examples of the content matching technology not working out in quite the way it was intended.

And finally, even television advertising suffers from this issue.

]]> http://www.igoo.co.uk/resources/articles/unfortunate-ad-placements/feed/ http://www.igoo.co.uk/resources/articles/splash-pages/ http://www.igoo.co.uk/resources/articles/splash-pages/#comments Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:54:47 +0000 gav firstintropagessplash http://www.igoo.co.uk/resources/articles/splash-pages/ Do we really need them?

Yes, sometimes we do. Should we use them? No, we probably shouldn’t. Splash screen (or splash page) is a front page of a web-site that don’t provide the actual content, but offers visitors some kind of intuition or background information for what the site is about. Designers use splash pages in their portfolios to impress potential clients with eye-candy. Companies tend to make use of them to draw users’ attention to their latest products. And users literally can’t stand them, because splash pages usually take a long time to load and provide (almost) no navigation options — except of “entering the site”.

Depending on designers’ creativity, splash pages use more or less attractive visual elements, sometimes with interactive Flash-movies which sometimes start to play automatically. Splash pages usually have a very simple structure — mostly just an image with few text lines and links.

The design of these pages sometimes isn’t related to the overall site design. And although most sites don’t use them, splash pages are sometimes necessary and therefore remain popular. In fact, there are some situations in which we might want or might even need to use them. Even although we shouldn’t — for our visitors’ sake.

12 Common Reasons For Using Splash Pages

• Splash pages display disclaimers or warnings which are supposed to restrict access to content such as pornography, advertising, or gambling (as is required by law).
• It is necessary to draw visitors’ attention to an important message such as approaching deadline, critical update, latest release, news, slogan etc.
• Visitors are supposed to select the language they want to use or the country they come from — to direct users to the appropriate version of the site.
• Visitors can choose between a low-bandwidth version (HTML — Dial-Up) and high-bandwidth version (Flash — cable, DSL). Sometimes one can also choose the “accessible” version containing only text without images.
• The designer informs visitors about site requirements such as used browsers, screen resolution as well as used Flash, Java, Quicktime etc. and suggests to choose the “right” configuration and download plug-ins for “optimal” site presentation.
• Visitors can select the preferred view mode - for instance, standard mode and fullscreen mode.
• Multiples sites share the same domain. Or a large site tries to communicate its most important sections directly.
• Splash page is supposed to include hints for browsing the site and explains the main sections.
• Designers use splash page trying to awake excitement for the actual content of the site.
• Sound is announced. Visitors are asked to turn on their loudspeakers to enjoy the Flash-show or Midi-experience (yes, apparently Midis are still alive).
• Splash pages are used as an additional form of advertising.
• The decision to use a splash page is design-driven and realizes some designer’s idea.

How To Lose Your Visitors: Case #1

Users don’t like splash pages, however if designed creatively, splash pages can also really get on users’ nerves. Petr Hrubes has an informative and attractive web-site with an absolutely unusable splash page (sorry, Petr). The design of Petr’s splash page offers precise information and is visually appealing, but it has one of the most significant mistakes a splash page can contain — it’s obtrusive and just not user-friendly.

Hrubes.com: this is not the way a splash page should be designed;
the main page opens in a new tab, in fullscreen mode.

If you are using Firefox or Opera you’ll find out that the mouse click on “Enter” opens the main page in a new tab in your browser. To navigate through the site visitors may want to close the “splash page”-window first and then change to the “main page”-tab. It’s neither necessary nor helpful.

The fans of Internet Explorer (is there anybody out there?) or Safari (Windows) have even more fun. Not only doesn’t the page open in a new tab (although IE7 should be capable of it), both browsers also open a new window which is automatically displayed in the fullscreen mode. Without warning. It doesn’t have to be like this.

How To Lose Your Visitors: Case #2

It can get worse: creative designers tend to offer their visitors problems of a different kind. For instance, sometimes users have to move the mouse among the splash page to recognize what elements can actually be clicked and what should be done to finally get to the content of the page.

Splash Page at FunkyPunky: can you recognize the linked area?
Hint: take a closer look at the top of the page.

Not every visitor is patient, in most cases the page will be closed right away. Or the visitors land on the Adobe-page where they are asked to download the latest version of Flash plug-in. Or they are directed to some design-award web-site where they can observe dozens of beautifully designed web-sites. You can be sure that they won’t get back. Here you go - an optimal way to lose a visitor in few seconds.

A Showcase Of Splash Pages

Whether minimal, useful, beautifully illustrated, colorful or animated: the design of splash pages is a challenge designers can take to impress their visitors with creative approaches. Whatever decision you make please make sure that you really need a splash page and that it is designed with a purpose in mind.

There are literally millions of them out there. Below we’d like to present an overview of splash pages which are supposed to showcase their basic purposes and common design solutions (mostly non-Flash-based splash pages are presented). These pages make use of the 12 common reasons we’ve listed at the top of this article. Here are some ideas:

Splash Pages As Additional Advertising

Both Apple and Zune use a hybrid of a splash page with basic navigation functions. What do you think, is it still a splash page? (Bonus: find the difference between both of them!).

Classic: multimedia-related sites offer audio and video on the splash page; however, sometimes basic navigation is also included. Ice Age also provides “special” entry points for users from United States and outside the U.S.

Showcase For Important Messages And News

Disclaimer, Warning, Requirements

Showcasing Designer’s Creativity

Choice Of A Language / Site Version

The selection of a language with a Flash-effect.

Splash Pages Explain What The SIte Is About

So much text, so many references, but none of them can be clicked.

An intro explains what the site is about. This is typical for many splash pages.

Minimalistic Solutions

Further Solutions

Flash-based splash page. There is some kind of navigation, however it doesn’t really work.

Two projects share the same domain.

The splash page explains how the page is supposed to be used — here the navigation is possible only with keyboard.

We Have No Idea Why The Splash Page Is Used

Splash page for a weblog? Yes, it’s possible.

Pinched from smashing magazine

Meangene does a step by step transformation of the existing google site. See how different it becomes.

MeanGene

Early research done for the project suggests that, for some, using the net is as stressful as a bungee jump. Official statistics on UK net use suggest that 39% of households do not have web access.

Net losses

Dr David Lewis, the lead psychologist employed on the project, said that for many people the biggest barrier to getting online was mental as many of those avoiding the net lived in homes with a dedicated connection. He said: “More often the barriers are internal, stemming from a fear of the technology.” “It will be interesting to see whether the trial will be enough to build the participants’ online confidence, or whether more needs to be done in terms of support and guidance to help them to become tech savvy,” he said.

By contrast to novices, many seasoned net users find the experience of going online very relaxing, said Dr Lewis. The psychologists on the project will take readings of physiological changes reluctant net users undergo when they go online. BT has chosen four subjects who will be studied closely as they are coached to use the net to find out why they fear using it.

To acquaint them with online life, the four subjects have been given a broadband link, a laptop, webcam and a digital camera. A two-month training plan has also been developed that will introduce them to what they can do on the net. The participants will also be encouraged to record their experiences on video or in still images and comment on what they discover. Their videos and images will be shown on the “Journey to Inclusion” website documenting the project.

Gavin Patterson, a spokesman for BT said: “The gap between the competent internet user and those who have never been online has never been greater.”

Simplicity as a result of a creative process is “the ultimate sophistication”, as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) said. Achieving simplicity is a difficult task not only in web-design but in every discipline (art, business, sports, science…), yet simplicity for websites is a particular challenge as paper derived graphic design and usability on one side, marketing language and user expectations on the other side are in constant struggle with each-other.

Graphic Design vs Usability

First of all, HTML and its table structure was not made to display graphics. It was made for text only. So by it’s technological nature the Internet was against designers.

There is an unarticulated war currently raging among those who make web sites. (…) This war is between usability experts and graphic designers. Curt Cloninger, A List Apart

Flash doesn’t solve this problem, it creates new problems. Flash is an alternative technology that is hard to use, hard to optimise for search engines, hard to administrate and even harder to combine with current components. Designers like flash, users don’t. However, no technology is bad as such. Of course, flash can be very useful if used intelligently.

Things got better since table-less CSS. Things got better since websites are made in table-less CSS though, as CSS is made for and by friends of typography and graphic design. The conflict design and usability is not just a technical one.

Some usability rules for webdesigners

Web-designers are confronted with a set of rules that websites have to follow in order to work, such as:
- Links have to be recognizable either through being underlined or blue or super obvious
- Logos should be placed in the upper left corner
- Fonts should be big and scalable

- Few pictures is better than many pictures
- Few fragmented text works better than text-blocks
- No columns for text, as websites scroll

Branding vs. Usability

The usability rules above lead to design rules that are different and in many ways stricter than the rules with paper based design. And, in many of those ways corporate design manuals clashed with these rules. Corporate identity was and often is still made by senior (old) designers that are not familiar with design on the web. Thus an important part of a corporate design is often missing and then poorly adapted from paper based design guidelines.

Branding vs usability = identity vs. conformity

The conflict between branding and usability, is also a conflict between identity and conformity. Strong identities are first of all: different, recognizable, bold, successful websites tend to uniformity. Successful websites, however manage to create identity through their interface.

Simplicity as unity of conflicting parameters

To create a unity between those principles is a particularly difficult task. On the other hand, brand experience online is essentially defined by the ease of use. If using a website is without problems, the user has a good brand experience. If on top the website is consistent with corporate design, you are right there. So basically, if web identity is part of the core identity development, there should be no conflict between branding and usability. Of course, whoever develops the on- and offline identity has to be aware of the characteristics of interactive media. In one word: Online identity is not a question of how big a logo is or where it is placed (this is almost a given), it is more a question of who you are and what you say, it is more a question of what words, what pictures do you use, than where you place them. And quite honestly, this is a measure stone for any corporate identity - on as well as offline.

New design rules

Creative people don’t like to be censored, yet few regulations incite more creativity than censorship. Since 1994, and more-so since we can use table-less CSS, web-design has developed significantly. It is currently establishing its own set of graphic rules, and insights such as:

• Work with light, not with layers of color.
• Create a dynamic not a static grid
• Define fonts so they work with poor rendering as well as with good rendering
• Set up a visual hierarchy that works vertically and is instantly understood

Talktalk vs. clarity

Websites should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler, in order to achieve maximum effect with minimum means. The copy writer has to be able to write whatever the marketing department tells him to write in clear simple words. The practice of simplicity is his daily bread. This clashes with the all too often empty overly wordy corporate blabla, but here again, websites are a healthy remedy of old practices. Successful websites are funny. And the reason is: Humor is the strongest weapon of communication.

With customers getting smarter and smarter (also through the Internet), and time getting sparce and sparcer due to the tremendous acceleration of things - you absolutely need the strongest communication to make yourself heard. The strongest communication is earnest, straightforward and humorous.

Paper likes grey noise, the screen doesn’t

Paper brochures are expected to be filled with text, so copywriters write and write more or less blind text. As a result, nobody reads them. And not just brochures, fashion magazines, newspapers are full with blind text, TVs implode with their preposterous nonsense. They do not care for the attention of the consumer, all they seem to care is to fill the world with deadly grey noise.

Struggle for every word

Websites basically have to struggle for every word, as with ever word that you write too much, you might loose your reader. Yet if you stay simple without oversimplifying or being sensational (works only for the dumb audience), your chances to keep the reader are considerably high.

Simplicity is not a given

Of course, simplicity is not a given, it is the fruit of continuous, concentrated, diligent work. Only who knows what he is doing is able to do it simply. There is no recipe or anything such as an ideal website. But if you know what you are doing as a designer, copywriter, business strategist, you are mainly dong one thing: You are reducing things to their essence. Designers have a hard time to keep it simple, because simplicity is not something that is there from the beginning, it has to be elaborated.

Thanks IAJ!

Cheers Dave

According to OPA, about 34 percent of Internet users' time was spent reading content in 2003—at that time, content came in second to "communications," which measured at 46 percent of Internet users' time. However, as of May 2007, OPA reports that those numbers have practically reversed: content now commands 47 percent of Internet users' time, and communications only 33 percent.

"The IAI has identified a very significant and sustained trend in where consumers are spending their online time," OPA president Pam Horan said in a statement. "The index indicates that, over the last four years, the primary role of the Internet has shifted from communications to content."

This dramatic shift in focus toward content is explained by the transition of offline activities—such as reading news, browsing TV or movie listings, and checking the weather—to online, according to Horan. "Quality content sites see a consistent pattern—major news drives traffic spikes, but traffic remains consistently higher even after the event. Major news events such as Hurricane Katrina and high-profile seasonal events such as the NCAA Final Four Basketball tournament are clearly driving consumers to engage more deeply
with online content," she said.

But online video and social networking sites also deserve some credit, says the report, for driving traffic and keeping users there in order to watch and communicate with each other. But wait, doesn't social networking count as "communication?" Well, yes, but not under OPA's metric, which appears to only categorize e-mail as quot;communication." Instant messaging also counts as content, according to OPA, which could also help explain content's explosive increase in popularity in recent years. "IM is a more efficient communications vehicle than e-mail," reads the report. Thank you, Captain
Obvious.

However, it seems that e-mail's popularity isn't actually going down, but rather the availability of content to consume is going up. Anecdotally, my colleagues and I agree that we conduct more of our everyday lives online than ever before, by getting driving directions, checking movie listings, reading reviews, news and blogs,  and creating content of our own. So much so, that our ratio of content consumption to e-mail communications actually is skewed heavily in favour of content, even though we send
more e-mail today than ever before too. As Internet access becomes more and more ubiquitous, we will likely continue to see this pattern in the years ahead as people continue to shift their offline activities online. Now, if there was only a way to wire up our brains to access WiFi…

Usability and Accessibility

The ironic thing about Flash is that its use is so frequently self-defeating. Flash is often used in an attempt to make sites more user friendly. But replacing familiar browser components with custom Flash garbage only hurts usability. Consistency is imperative for a UI — users learn how to do something once, and can apply that knowledge in tons of places. But with Flash, overzealous designers try to “fix” what they see as bad interface models by creating custom Flash crap. This sucks.

While we’re on usability, let’s talk about people who are disabled. Flash sucks at accessibility. Though Flash has some features that are supposed to improve accessibility, they’re weak and almost never used. The fact of the matter is that Flash is pretty much inherently inaccessible. If you want to use Flash, and remain accessible (and indexable — web spiders can’t understand Flash binaries either), your only real option is to create a second version of your site that uses standard technologies. That sucks.

Technically, the accessibility and usability issues apply only to poorly designed Flash sites. Someone could (and probably will) counter that it’s not Flash that sucks, but people who are using Flash the wrong way. I’d argue that a tool that encourages suckiness is itself inherently sucky, but I’ll spare you that schpeel and move on to the one thing that makes Flash incontrovertibly sucky, regardless of how you use it.

Closed Specification

Call me idealistic, but I hate companies that use closed specifications to stifle competition. And that may be my biggest issue with Flash. Sure, Adobe provides the SWF and FLV Specifications to developers who want to create Flash content. But first you have to agree to the SWF File Format Specification License where you promise that you will “not use the Specification in any way to create or develop a runtime, client, player, executable or other program that reads or renders SWF files.” That sucks.

Don’t care about the closed specification issues? Well, you should. As more and more content is stored in Adobe’s proprietary format, the company is gaining a tremendous amount of power. They’ve already announced a version of Flash that includes DRM support, allowing “copyright holders” to prevent users from skipping advertisements and restrict copying. Heck, digital rights management (DRM), combined with the overly restrictive anti-circumvention legislation in the DMCA, could make it illegal to download and save your own damned YouTube videos! That would definitely suck.

Glad to see Adobe has it’s priorities straight. While they rushed to include DRM support, the company has been dragging it’s feet on Flash support for 64-bit operating systems (there is none). This problem is years old. And it’s not like the advent of 64-bit CPUs was a surprise. They should have been working on 64-bit Flash in the late 1990s — or they should have at least given it some thought! And, seriously, it’s taken a team of coders more than two years to port a plugin from 32-bit to 64-bit? Christ, Apple ported an entire operating system from a RISC to a CISC chipset in less time than that. Sounds like the Flash code-base sucks too.

So what’s the alternative?

Yea, you got me. That’s what really sucks. Microsoft Silverlight might provide a viable alternative once it’s released. But chances are it will suck at least as much as Flash. Maybe if the W3C standards for SVG and SMIL are ever fully implemented a decent open solution will exist and the problem will go away (if you’re in Firefox, check out some of the SVG samples, they’re pretty cool). But until then, we’re stuck with Adobe’s crap. So I implore you: use it right, and only when absolutely, positively, unquestionably and undeniably necessary.

Grafted from ImMike