[USPS-Webmasters] Website Awards - Animated Graphics

[Ben.Garber@grace.com]

Well said.    I agree with several of the comments.   We were lucky 
enough to receive the award this year and last year but we do not use 
animation so we were penalized for that.    I think features like this 
and sound can be done tastefully but usually detract rather than enhance 
a site.   Maybe a "bonus" section could be added to give points when 
really nice things are done.    I am not a Monday morning quarterback 
and really appreciate the work all of you have done ... just my two 
cents! 

Ben Garber
Lake Charles Squadron, D21
www.lcpsonline.org 


-----Original Message-----
From: billray@bedoeling.com [mailto:billray@bedoeling.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 12:05 PM
To: pbrownell@gmavt.net; usps-webmasters@usps.org
Subject: Re: [USPS-Webmasters] Website Awards - Animated Graphics


We agree out here in Seattle on the animated graphics.  They are like 
blinking text or animated banner ads which can be distracting in the 
corner of your eye.  I kept a few of them on a links page, but do not 
use them on any page people are going to read, which I consider 
"appropriate" use of animation.  (I think that item should be scored a 
bit better than average with no animation, leaving an upside for the 
great uses or a downside if not well done).

My other pet peeve is sound.  Many people surf the web in an office, or 
at home early or late, perhaps checking the Squadron calendar or 
searching for a public boating class.  To have music suddenly blare out 
from a home page is a killer.  Yes it is possible to turn it off, but by 
then the damage has been done.  Many people will never come back.  I 
only use sound where it is user invoked, like a link to whale sounds.

Actually there is a third which is colored text on colored backgrounds. 
These are very hard for my old eyes to read, and many young ones, so the 
current web design trend is to pages with significant text as black on 
white, or dark text on nearly white backgrounds.  Second best is very 
light against very dark but this is harder to read, another reason 
people will abandon a web site.

It is useful to have this discussion and air ideas on sites.  We all see 
these things differently.  Web site design is still an art form and 
evolving, a fun plus for the many dedicated Squadron webmasters and 
webmistresses.doing this work.

Thanks,

Bill

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Brownell" <pbrownell@gmavt.net>
To: <usps-webmasters@usps.org>
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 4:56 AM
Subject: [USPS-Webmasters] Website Awards - Animated Graphics


> Hi All,
>
> First,I want to commend and thank the many folks who were involved in 
> the evaluation of the web sites.  It was a huge job and I'm impressed 
> with the degree to which it was organized and publicized before hand.
>
> One quick comment as the criteria for next year are reviewed.  When I 
> first took over our site, one of the first things I did was to remove 
> the few animated graphics that were there.  The two main reasons are 
> that we have some members with really old software and they get error 
> messages when the software tries to display some of the newer moving 
> graphics. Secondly we have folks with really slow modems.  (for 
> instance some with 1200 baud modems on their boats with their cell 
> phones and laptops). To them, the extra load time is a detractor.
>
> Guess I'll have to take the hit again next year for not having the 
> animated graphics, but it is a value judgement we feel strongly about 
> here in Vermont.
>
> Again, thanks to all for participating.  It is a plesure to be in the 
> company of all the volunteer webmasters across the country who share 
> the love of boating.
>
> Best
>   Peter
>    :-)
> -------------------------
> Peter Brownell, Webmaster
> Winooski Valley Sail & Power Squadron
> Lake Champlain, Vermont
>
>
>
>
>
>
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