Articles on Website Design and Development.
The need for attention
Not all sites need to be whiz-bang spectacular, many simply need to provide a message in a clear progressive thought which usually prompts for a visitors' action.
However, with all the potential media delivery methods available to site pages today like instant-playing video, Flash Intros, form pop-ups, side column moving banners, etc., its all too easy to get caught up in the 'cool' of it to realize how distracting it sometimes can be.
Consider the Super-Bowl Commercial that was so funny that people forgot what product was being promoted...(how dissappointing was that for the company that footed the 2 million per minute bill) the same scenario can easily occur on your web site if your not paying close attention.
Don't get me wrong, an alive pleasing to the eye website is critical, but is that background song really 'adding' anything to your message? or is that non-stop blinking "Buy Now!" image helping or annoying your audience. These two examples are obvious but it gets a lot more difficult to discern when the conflict is far more subtle.
The immediate an very consequential effect of annoying frills can result in an instant 'bounce'...that is, when the site visitor arrives at your front page and instantly bounces off it (hitting the back arrow).
So be sure to consider whether that neato attention getting add-on draws attention toward your message or away from it. If you've got any doubts, err on the side of caution and don't use it.