One of the best ways to use Flash is intros

[mrpc]

We love to design intros for our clients. It has to be one of the best ways to use flash on the Internet.

http://www.pchouseproductions.com

What do you think?

PC

[cerbellum]

I don't really like it, some text motion, bad quality gfx, and sound.
If you didn't have any sound on your intro, it would be worse, n/o.
The website itself isn't good neither, I would even say it looks SWISHy and that's not really a good point, is it.
Looking at the site I really believed this was made by an amateur, but certainly not by a pro. company.
sorry.

Cer

[TrenZ]

Hey its one thing to be a critic but its another thing to be a pric. The site isn't bad at all. I agree it looks like some text effects from swish but so what they look nice. As long as the company likes it thats all that matters. So all I can say is good job on your site I like it. I have one question though. How do you make your menu load and unload movies. Are those seperate swf files or what.
Thanx in advance

[erova]

Originally posted by mrpc
It has to be one of the best ways to use flash on the Internet.

yup, especially in 1999.

i guess depending on who your audience is, they might dig the intro as something new and on the cutting edge of technology, but for most of the flashkit crowd here making buzz words fly in and fade out is about the most tired use of flash. but if you're pitching to less web-savvy clients who are going to be stunned by stuff moving on their screen, then i guess you've accomplished your mission.

and settle down trenz, no one's being a prick here at all...i'm sure if this thread takes off and a lot of people respond you'll hear a lot more voices similar to that of cerbellum than those of "wow, i've never seen flash do this before".

[TrenZ]

I never said the site was wow I just said it was decent. Everyone has their own opinion and I respect that but I think there is a professional manner in which you should state your opinion in. Instead of saying this is and that is horrible how about saying the site is ok but you could work on blah blah on the next site. I agree that the text thing is played but most companies don't spend their day on flashkit so they dont experience those type of effects. If someone is willing to pay me 200 bucks to fade in and out letters well then shoot thats what they are going to get.

[erova]

Originally posted by TrenZ
If someone is willing to pay me 200 bucks to fade in and out letters well then shoot thats what they are going to get.

can't argue with that.

[pchad]

I can't help but think that this site is intended as a parody of the Flash sites of old. From the breathy voiceovers when you click on the links and the Mosses-like voiceover in the intro, to the banal quotes under each of the respective "visionaries." I do not intend disrespect if it is otherwise, but was this a satirical stand-up of old school Flash.

In either case, I loved it.

Chad
http://www.pear-mouse.com

[mrpc]

I appreciate all of the response good and bad. However, if you told me to my face that the site was Swished out - I'd thump ya real good!

Everything we do is custom, even the "Old School" text animations. We do not try to copy the 2advanced style and template, like about 70% of the flash designers in the world.

The main point I wanted to discuss would be the viability of the Flash Intro. Though it is true that out of the seemingly hundreds of thousands of flash intros that have ever been produced, 90% or more have been total garbage - meaningless and without a purpose. I've noticed a shift in the design community that would say 'the flash intro is passe'. I beg to differ.

It seems to me that a good flash intro has to be one of the strongest uses that flash can perform. We as a community should start putting out 30 second flash commercials, like pronto. The Internet is about marketing, for the most part. How many major Corporations are guilty of text tweens? Multi million dollar commercials with text tweens, imagine that? From companies like Pepsi, New York Life, Prudential, IBM and the list goes on. With all kinds of "moving stuff on your screen."

As broadband continues its incredible growth, if the designers could grasp that regardless of the method (text tweens or not) that the message is far more important than the design. What better way to get out a message than a 30 second animated commercial. If it weren't effective, there would be no such thing as television. Not to say the the Internet will replace television, at least not in the immediate future. However, it is effective and I think it's unfortunate that much of the talent in this forum would shun away from this powerful aspect of flash design.

PC

[think5577]

Hey mrpc, I thought it was good. Its a Flash intro that passed its purpose, "To express an idea by words, motion, whatever."

Keep up the good work. Dont believe any of these FKers. Some might be pissed cause they couldnt make anything like that.

True, there are some things I would change in the intro, but thats my opinion. As long as you express your entended message then you did your job. The average user to that site will probably think that was the greatest thing on earth. These FKers see Flash everyday so of course they will be highyly opinionated.

Like I said, keep up the good work.

[aaron.martone]

Though it's true that the message is the main part of the flash, I think to metaphor of the TV is rather correct in this assumption. But you got to remember MrPC; a lot of us are designers; so design is a skill that is very respected when done well.

It's like seeing a $19.99 Limited Time Deal-Level of Detail commercial vs. a Professionally made Toyota commercial featuring special effects, camera angles, lighting and what not. There's a difference; Flash was never designed for Commercial work on TV (though shows like South Park and Home Movies are both created by Flash!)

This community is one to give props to any job well done, but then there are a select elite who judge your content vs. the current new media. Message is always important; but if you can get your message across AND make it look good, all the better.

[chip1717]

I appreciate your defense of criticism in general, but what did you think of the site? Will it work? I talk to people who say they "are so over flash"!You seem to be confident in the ability to appreciate good work when you see it. Was the intro a good use of Flash?

[Docta-Fitz]

Figure I'll stick my two cents in...

1. Flash intros are one of the worst ways to use it with regard to business. Why? It will kill your site's PageRank. No visitors, no money. One of those situations where it looks cool but it is detrimental to the goal of businesses.

2. 1.1 mb intros are ridiculous. No 56k modem user will ever wait that long for something to load.

Sorry I couldn't comment on the actual content of the intro, but I am sitting here on a 56k modem.

[mrpc]

Your premise is completely incorrect regarding search listings. There are ways around being penalized, plenty.

Also, our target market is particularly B2B broadband customers.

Further - one of our clients http://www.lasvegas-sushi.com which is not a B2B customer, but rather a sushi restaurant in Vegas is doing quite well with their web presence. Their broadband site receives more traffic than their 56k site and not only that, 6% of everyone who hits that site is taking advantage of the 10% discount by joining the mailing list. It's about correctly identifying your target market. We knew that many sushi connoisseurs would be broadband and we knew how to target them specifically.

By all standards, that site is quite a success story.

PC

[TrenZ]

I dont care what anyone says that Osaka one is tight. Real professional and gets the job done. A+ in my book. Oh plus to comment about the one post, if you think flash sucks then why are you on flashkit. I think flash is one awsome and if your creative enough you can really hook people in your project both web and enhanced cd's. Theres so much you can do with flash it aint even funny

[Docta-Fitz]

"Las Vegas Sushi."

Searched on Google and your site wasn't even in the top 40.

On a subsequent search of "las vegas sushi restaurant" your site didn't appear in the top 40 results either.

I am not saying a site can't be successful without showing up in search results. I am just saying you are not going to get hits from searches when your front page is either a splash page or a flash intro. Barring of course you having a great linking strategy.

What surgery has to do with web development is beyond me.

[JayCharles]

For what it's worth... I was involved in a focus group study last year geared toward determining how the average user was taking to the available web media technologies.

A large part of one of the meetings had to do with splash pages in general, but rapidly became a discussion about Flash intros.

Most of the focus group participants had more or less the same thing to say... "There's no reason I should wait for a commercial to load when the tv commercial I see all the time is much better".

Of course, this doesn't apply to every business, but I think the message was very clear. From a designer's standpoint, making Flash do neat **** is fun, and we can spend lots of time impressing ourselves, but when it comes to the end-user market, intros are not as impressive as the tv ads they see... and therefore are not impressive at all.

There are certainly exceptions, particularly when it comes to media and entertainment firms, but for the average business... it seems the end user just wants to get to the information.

[mrpc]

2 things to consider - Not every client pays for full search engine optimization. Some take the wait and see attitude. Search Engine optimization is a tricky business and certainly takes time and knowledge.

As the Internet continues to evolve, so do we all - in knowledge and understanding of how things work. Within in the past few months, I personally have learned quite a bit about search engine placement and am able to offer much, much more to my clients in this area than ever before - only recently. With that said, I will tell you again - a flash intro does not get in the way of search engine placement, BOTTOM LINE!

Therefore, back to my original statement - Flash Intros are one of the best uses of Flash.

PC

[gladzooks]

flash intros are about as IN as iron-on tee shirt decals. As roach clips. As spray on hair.

They're not IN for one extremely good reason. Because they're a pain the arse! All they do is force the user to make an extra click (ie the "skip intro" button) and to go through an extra page load. Horribly, horribly, wretchedly annoying! I !@#$!#$ hate !@#$!@#$ flash intros !#$!@#!@#$ grrrrr!!!!

Just my humble opinion.

[chrism421]

I think the Docta has got you big guy. You brought up the idea of the Sushi site being listed even though it has an intro. WRONG. Also you claim to be a marketing company. Can't find your company listed either. I am afraid that I have to agree with the rest of the crowd. Your site with the intro's would have been really cool about 5 years ago. Never fear, I am guilty of this as well, my site needs a face lift as well (which I am currently working on). When I first started working with flash, I thought designing intro's was the coolest thing. But, people will hit the Skip Intro button most every time.

[mrpc]

This is getting somewhat silly, but I'll go ahead and lay all the cards on the table - being that I have a straight flush and I hate to see you guys keep betting.

Number 1 - We just launched our site a few days ago, which is why I posted it here, so I can get tons of guff from a bunch of "designers" who seemingly know everything about everything. So there hasn't been time to list with the search engines.

Number 2 - the Osaka site received 18,782 visitors in 2002 and 91% were unique visitors. Roughly 44% of those visitors were from Search Engine queries. How many hits has your site had?

Now, I know that these numbers are not the greatest site traffic numbers in the world - but they aren't too shabby. Especially since this sight has not been fully optimized for search engine placement - as of yet. However, give it another 6 weeks and test your theories then.

Number 3 - We launched the new Osaka site in August of 2002 and since, as I said earlier - 6% of total site traffic actually signs up for the e-mail list and do you know what kind of comments the visitors make? Well I do and I'd love to share a few with all of you know-it-alls. Keep in mind, these are visitors who have chosen to make anonymous comments as they sign up for the MARKETING campaign which is currently working very well.

Yuur website is superb

Your web site gave me a very good idea of what I can expect from your restaurant.

Your Web site is excellent and the reason I am making reservations on my upcoming trip to Las Vegas

through your website, there does not seem to be a way to print your menu. We are having a group of 8 attend for lunch and we were going to pass around the menu before lunch so they can decide what they want to eat beforehand. Otherwise, website is very good.

I am planning a birthday dinner and a friend told me about Osaka. I called and the woman who answered was very pleasant and told me about this website. I was very impressed and immediately called to make reservations. The wide variety of Japanese dishes sounds like exactly what I've been looking for.

Your website is great. Hope to see you soon

I love your website, very informative and detail oriented.

your website is so complete and impressive that i would want to visit your restaurant when i get the chance.

If your attention to detail to your web site is anything compared to your food and service it should be phenominal. I look forward to our visit...

Look forward to experiencing dining at your restaurant during my visit mid-september. I really enjoy your web site and the music was must enjoyable!

I will be traveling to Las Vegas in the coming months and was hoping to find a quality japanese restaurant with quality sushi. I hope I'm as satisfied as your website made me.

The website is very nice and your food looks wonderful. I hope to be able to visit you when I go to Vegas this weekend.

Your website is absolutly yummy. I have always wanted to visit a Japanese resteraunt and I will when in Vegas in November

WEB SITE VERY HELPFUL

great web site! look forward to visiting this week! thank you.

Your website is superb. I am planning a party in Las Vegas Sept 7th and will most likely bring a dozen people in for dinner.

Great website, outstanding information. My wife & I are celebrating our 1st anniversay in Las Vegas and we definitely plan on dining at Osaka.

YOUR WEBSITE IS BEAUTIFUL AND WE WILL BE VISITING YOU THIS WEEK PROBABLY 26 SEP FOR LUNCH OR 27SEP FOR LUNCH OR DINNER THANKS DEBBIE

Your web site is one of the best I have seen for a restaurant...


That should be enough. Of course it is not the best site on the net, but don't tell me that it doesn't work! Because it works quite well - flash intro and all. It may not be for everybody, but there are still many who like entertainment online and it impacts them.

Many of you flash designers think that you have the market cornered on what works and what doesn't work and you forget that 90% of the Internet are lay people who are looking for something different. What is your plan, to replace boring HTML pages, with boring flash pages? It's about marketing, not about what your friends think is 'cool'. It's about what works and what will impact your visitors. I'm sorry, but I'll keep going down the road I'm going down and you nay sayers can take your biased opinions and stuff 'em!

PC