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Graphics and Animation - Graphics are a very powerful force on web pages. Our eyes are immediately attracted to graphics. Your site's graphics should flow together with the content on the web page, rather than be an eye-arresting focus.
- Eye is drawn to graphics
Within the Graphics realm there is a hierarchy that the eye follows:- The eye goes to a photo first, based on size and scale
- Illustrations are the next most attractive
- Unadorned text draws the eye least.
- Content is King
It is a trueism in web design that "content is king". In general, your words are what is most important. Photos and illustrations should enhance the message, not interrupt or overcome it. - Flash Animation
Flash animation is a great tool, if used sparingly. The animation on this site's home page uses Flash, and it's a very good attention-getter. Animation 'movies' tend to be relatively large, and eat up download time. Search engines such as Google do not pay attention to Flash, so it's important that any essential aspects of the site not be in Flash. Short, targeted Flash presentations are the key.
