Preloader, Movie = index page.

Good, Bad, Does it matter?

[superfly]

I am redoing an old website and have created a movie and new graphics to go along with it. I was wondering if it is a bad idea to have a movie as the index page. The preloader only takes a few seconds even when tested with a dial up and the movie quickly has an enter site link.

[BlobFisk]

Hi superfly,

If you're going to do it, and it is a matter of personal choice (personally, I hate them!), make sure you have a skip this movie text link that takes them directly to the main front page.

[SlyGuy]

Superfly,

I'm with BlobFisk on this one, I can't stand movies and splash pages forced on me.

While using a "skip intro" option is important and helpful, perhaps a better idea would be to design a regular index page with a link to the movie. Therefore, the only people who will view the movie, will be the ones that want to.

Just a thought..

- Chad

[BlobFisk]

I did a site for a client once where she insisted that there be a flash intro movie. So, our flash person did up a nice flash movie for her and I then put a cookie on the persons machine that redirected them to the main content page for all subsequent visits.

The client was very happy with this and with the fact that there was a link on the main content page for people to go and view the movie again if they so wished.

First visit -> Flash into movie (with skip intro link)

All subesequent visits -> Straight into the action.

[amanda21]

In my experience clients love movies, visitors hate them, especially long pointless ones.

But if yours is only a few seconds long, and tells the visitor something important, put it in and do the cookie thing that blobfisk suggested.

Remember to put some regular text content on the page, below the movie. A pure movie index page is not good for the search engines.

[tedster]

I wonder if anyone has measured how many clicks they get on a "Skip Intro" link?

I only know of one case - and it was a very big Flash file. So many "Skip Intro" clicks happened (over 90% of page views) that the company involved removed the movie altogether within 2 weeks of its launch.

[BlobFisk]

I'm immediately prejudiced against sites that have intro movies. I would imagine that the click through rate on Skip This Movie is very high.... but I would think that there are a limited number of sites with Intro Movies that are getting very high traffic per month.

[Xemoka]

Hello there people.. i myself absolutly dispise _ALL_ forms of loading/splash or what have you. it's a waste of my time having me to click on a little image, or watch a little movie just to see the site, and little "skip me" buttons are just as annoying because you can't click the click me button usually untill the page is loaded and by that time your starting to think "ugg.. hury up already" but then again i'm a digital gold fish [ [news.bbc.co.uk...] ] and like to avoid waiting for anything that has to do with computer times.

I eventually took over my schools webpage wich had a splash page (this being dumb because all school browsers default to this and if a student wanted to see the site on load, or if the website had important info they would never know because they acutally have to click on it) and the first thing i did even before designing a new site was removing the splash!

but this is my 2 cents (well.. thats debatable depending on where you are, 0.0128180 USD if you want to get technical) so basically my opinion.. just ignore me i'm starting to ramble..

anywho.. hello all.. i'm xemoka.. HA!

[tedster]

I would imagine that the click through rate on Skip This Movie is very high.... but I would think that there are a limited number of sites with Intro Movies that are getting very high traffic per month.

If I named names (and I won't) everyone here would know the company I'm talking about - they are regularly near or in the top 100 for traffic in Alexa. To their credit, they did the experiment, measured it and then responded quickly when they saw those god-awful numbers.

[knighty]

All you need to do is have a cookie that is set then when ever the user returns they will skipped through automatically

[Robert Charlton]

>>All you need to do is have a cookie that is set then when ever the user returns they will skipped through automatically<<

If the user returns.... If the user even continues on to the rest of the site.... That first time can be pretty dreadful.... The cinematic experience of dancing text or moving logos is simply not that entertaining, especially on a dial-up connection.

It would be interesting to see what happens if the user had to opt in rather than opt out of seeing the movie. I'd bet on a very low click through rate for opt-in unless there's good word-of-mouth.

[Krapulator]

Forget the movie! Put something relevant and useful on the homepage. Splash pages are self indulgent and most visitors will skip them. Also, you are causing yourself damage in the search engine department. The spiders are looking for content and links, escpecially on the main page of your site. Use the first page to feed them quality content and links into the rest of the site.

In my humble opinion!

[kevinpate]

If you're going to have a little movie at the front end of your web site, unless a little hand reaches out of my monitor and delivers some very hot buttery popcorn, I'm long gone before I even read the phrase Skip Int [back button engaged] See?