Should You Use A Flash Introduction On Your Web Site?

Should You Use A Flash Introduction On Your Web Site?

A Flash intro, better known by its infamous skip-intro name, is a bad web design technique that should be banned like asbestos.

What Is It?: An animation accompanied by music that is at least thirty seconds to two minutes long and the first web page shown before entering a web site.

The only reason anyone ever uses a skip-intro page is because they think its cool. There is absolutely nothing good about skip-intro web pages.

Heres how a skip-intro page usually happens:

A business owner (or even a large-scale company) wants a web site. So they hire a web designer or a web design team. The owner knows absolutely nothing about web design or usability (more on that in a moment). So the design people put together a site and then show the owner what theyve made. He looks it over, and then decides it lacks oomph. The site could be perfect in every way. It could be easy to use and a selling machine, but the owner is convinced that in order to sell his products, he must excite his audience.

The all-too-familiar skip-intro then rears its ugly head. Out of desperation, the designers will make...