The Flash intro - a time honored element for many websites hoping to dazzle and impress its visitors from the get go. Unfortunately, the best of intentions can sometimes spawn the worst of results, and flash intros are more often considered an annoying hindrance to the content the user wishes to see than the visual feast for the eyes the website hopes it to be.
That being said, many types of sites do lend themselves compatible with a well conceived Flash intro, as long as they can be executed without turning the user off before their interest in your content can even being. A few tips to consider if you just can't help yourself and have the unending desire to blow your visitors minds with your great idea for an intro:
1. Include a clearly visible way to skip the intro. As much as it pains you to imagine visitors skipping all the hard work you put into it, there are many people who will simply close your site rather than have to site through an intro of an indeterminate length.
2. Keep the file size manageable. People generally have fast connections these days, but don't go too crazy. No one wants to sit and wait for 45 seconds while your intro is loading, no matter how cool your preloader is.
3. If you must have a large file size, go about loading the assets in an intelligent manner so that the intro can begin while other files continue to load in the background. Every second a user has to wait gives them a chance to decide they are bored and click away.
So there you have it, show off if you must, just try to do so in the least annoying way possible. Steve Jobs will no doubt appreciate it.
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