Splash Screens

[g0ldman]

I have a small spash screen on my site, but I'm thinking about changing it. In Lord of the Rings : Fellowship of the Ring, at the beggining you see the camera scroll across a map of middle earth. It pans up, and the words "The Fellowship of the Ring" shows up in white, which is what I have right now. I'm thinking about making a flash movie for my splash screen. I'd use the same concept as the movie, only have TheHobbits.net instead of The Fellowship of the Ring. What do you think?

[g0ldman]

What do you think of splash screens in general?

[uhsites]

It sounds cool, but where will you get the images (or permission to use the LOTR images).... and will it take a long time for the flash to load?


Personally I think some splash screens are nice, if they don't take forever to load and are nicely designed. It's awful when you wait for a splash screen to load just to see a yucky "welcome to my site. Enter" graphic.

Some splash screens are really nice and effective... but some sites are better without them.


I normall skip flash splashes, because they take too long to load.

[uhsites]

Oh, and if a site has frames, it's nice to give it a splash screen just visitors have a place to go without frames... a page they can bookmark or whatever.

[g0ldman]

OK I get what your saying. So I sohuld keep it short, and make it look good. Cool. Thanks!

[y6y6y6]

Just my opinion, but splash screens are one of the most annoying things on the web. The web is about getting information quickly. having to wait through some designer's idea of cool is annoying.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally posted by y6y6y6
Just my opinion, but splash screens are one of the most annoying things on the web. The web is about getting information quickly. having to wait through some designer's idea of cool is annoying.
I agree for the most part.

[sxtxixtxcxh]

it really depends on the site...

however, if having a place to bookmark because you're using frames is the only reason for a splash screen, you've got two bad design decisions :P 1) frames and 2) a splash screen.

why are you using frames... ?

[Ophelia]

And whatever you do make sure you put a "skip intro" button on it! Nothing worse than waiting for some 500k monster to load and have no way to escape :)

I think splashes are ok for a few sites, but not many. I don't mind it so much for artist/animators sites. It has to be really good and also appropriate to the subject matter. I don't find them all that bad, but they are for the most part pretty cheesy. But definitely you should make it easy to skip if you decide to go with one.

[uhsites]

Oh yeah, there's nothing like the feeling of being trapped while waiting for a gigantic splash to load...



I've seen some nice splash pages done on horse ranch sites (erm, I'm a horse person)-- sometimes they'll have an impressive photo of their stallion, or a shot of the horses they've raised, etc., and it can be nice. If it doesn't take forever to load :-)

[uhsites]

Here is a splash page that I like:
http://www.edandmartha.com/

It's a horse barrel racing (type of horse event). It's cool because the shot shows the horse's brand, and the dirt flying as it skids into the tight turn.

[sxtxixtxcxh]

not bad, but... kinda pointless as a splash page don't you think?

that could have easily replaced the large image the have on the home.htm file.

and the splash page has no info besides the image ..


... wait.. there's like.. hidden text on the bottom. i guess by design to let the background load. and then hide when it's done...

in any case, i don't argue with the quality of the photo. it's a great image. (and coming from someone not partial to looking at horses asses.... ;) )

[uhsites]

Huh, you're right, I didn't notice that text because the background loaded quickly on my comp....

[sxtxixtxcxh]

:P i hadn't noticed either... until i read the source. i think their splash page is also being used to preload the images for the rest of the site. or at least the navigation.

[intricate]

Yes. Thehobbits.net would be good. It would catch people off suprise thinking Lord of the Rings would pop up.

[g0ldman]

Yeah it would. I'll try it out, and if it really sucks people can tell me that in the guestbook and I'll change it.

[Tammy]

Well, you asked. I hate splash screens. They are a waste of time. If you have to visit a site more than occasionally and it has a splash screen, it will drive you batty. Please incorporate whatever clever ideas you have for a splash screen into the pages of your web site and you will be doing the world a big favor. :)

[uhsites]

Haha, I guess you are right.... I suppose if there is a site you visit a lot, then it would drive you nuts having to wait & watch the same splash load, time after time after time.... the horrible feeling of being trapped as the splash screen loads, or having to click "enter" again and again, each time you visit the site.

It's like, "of COURSE I want to enter, that's why I came to this in the first place, stupid" when a splash screen asks you to click enter :-)

[g0ldman]

Yes it would be good to have the ability to bookmark the actual site. I'll have to put that in.

[metawu]

or some cookie/script whatever that'll take the user to the main page after the first visit.

And if they want to see it again have a link to it on your main page.

[VENCO]

Originally posted by y6y6y6
Just my opinion, but splash screens are one of the most annoying things on the web. The web is about getting information quickly. having to wait through some designer's idea of cool is annoying.

A splash screen I have put on my gaming group's site seems to be very effective for us. It's a good way to direct people to either the website, the forums, or the stats page. I find it to be a very big help and it seems the users like it too.

[g0ldman]

Where could I find a cookie that redirects the person to the site after the first visit.

[uhsites]

Search on Google for "redirect cookie" or something like that... I'm sure there are a bunch of sites out there that have free cookies and such.

[-rAz-]

Also considering using a cookie for after the first visit. Users that come to your site after the first time just need the content, no fancy splash screen each time they visit.

[vanselus]

But some people will come back to see the splash if it's cool. Or there's some people that won't recognize the site if it's not EXACTLY the same the second time. Although I can't imagine you have too many computer-illiterate people visiting your site.

I usually hate splash screens, but some sites warrant them - like praystation or the gaming sites. Movies too, and bands. But for normal business sites... ugh. I can't stand going to a company's site to look at their products, and get bogged down by a 30second flash before I can even see the frickin site.

In those cases, it's mostly some stupid marketing idiot that knows nothing about anything and just wants to show the CEO that he did something. Wow - that looks neat, and it's on the computer! Now our website has value. Maybe someday we'll get back the $30k we spent on that 10 second flash movie.

[metawu]

Totally agree.

If you're gonna have a splash screen make it useful like links to forums or some sort of menu available while the movie is loading/playing.

[Tammy]

Btw, splash screen are not the worst thing. The worst thing is music that plays while they are up. In fact, sites that have music automatically play in general annoy me. (I feel like Andy Rooney.) I mean, if it is BAD music. Good music that is not too loud is ok. ;)

[uhsites]

Originally posted by vanselus

In those cases, it's mostly some stupid marketing idiot that knows nothing about anything and just wants to show the CEO that he did something. Wow - that looks neat, and it's on the computer! Now our website has value. Maybe someday we'll get back the $30k we spent on that 10 second flash movie.


$30K? someone would pay that for a stupid splash page?
I'd say whoever would pay that for it probably doesn't know anything :)
But whoever gets paid the $30k is probably the smartest one, lol :)

[fac3less]

Not really.. ripping people off will just get you ripped off later on.. most likely for about double. :) (company goes out of business :b or something amusing)

I've known people to pay 30K on a good site.. but at least it was a good product afterwards.

[uhsites]

That is true-- ripping people off is bad :(
I'd like to see a site that cost $30k... care to share any links?
For that matter, I'd like to see some examples of sites in the 5-20k range...

[Tammy]

$30,000 for a splash screen? Who did it, some big-time ad agency or something creating a movie? You can get a full 30-second tv commercial with real actors and a fancy director for under $100k, so a $30k splash better be reaaaaaaaally special.

[fac3less]

30 thou for asite. :)

not a splash screen (if that message was to me)

[fac3less]

check out 2advanced studios.

And the site that was 30k-50k was MedSymphony (a medical company, I don't have the link anymore.. I think it was called that anyways.. wicked flash work. nill loadtimes also)

Oh well - Have fun.

[-rAz-]

Check out http://derbauer.de

those always had nice splash screens but were always a very heavy load too

look at their past work - should still be linked

[Tammy]

Originally posted by -rAz-
Check out http://derbauer.de

those always had nice splash screens but were always a very heavy load too

look at their past work - should still be linked

Nice splash screens, but I'm glad I'm not using my old laptop to look at it, would grind my old machine to a halt. ;)

[Viper007Bond]

Originally posted by -rAz-
Check out http://derbauer.de

those always had nice splash screens but were always a very heavy load too

look at their past work - should still be linked
Pretty nice site. *nods*