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Practical Web Design - Fundamentals of Web Design
Thinking Twice
There are plenty of options to think about before you employ them on your page.
Music and Sound Effects
Music/audio effects are something to consider carefully before adding. HTML Goodies' Joe Burns tells us flatly, "There is no such thing as too little sound" on a Website, and I tend to agree with him. A lot of surfers don't appreciate music or sound effects suddenly blaring at them from a newly loaded page, nor do they want to sit for minutes on end while a fat sound file loads. Other surfers, including yours truly, often listen to music from Internet radio or their own sources while surfing, and don't want sound from your page intruding on their listening. And there's always the poor cubicle rat who has to lunge for his volume control before his co-workers, or his boss, hears the sounds thundering from your page.
If you provide music and/or sound effects, let the surfer know that a sound file is coming up, and let them decide whether or not to activate it. At the very least, make it easy for them to turn it off once they're on your page by ensuring that a control panel shows. And make the sound file load last by placing it at the bottom of your page; that way, while it's loading, your visitors are perusing your page instead of waiting for a sound file to load.
You can go to About.com's Background Audio Tool page to easily create a simple JavaScript code snippet for an audio file that will play automatically on your page. The advantage of this page is that the code it generates is fairly generic, which means it will work in both Netscape and IE, and you don't have to know JavaScript to generate your own code.
The easy way to deal with the issue of sound is not to deal with it at all; i.e. don't include it. Unless you're running a music, gaming, or humor page, sound is usually not a necessity and almost always an intrusion. Never subject your visitors to unexpected sounds. Says Burns:
"One of the joys of Web surfing is the ability to absorb yourself with following an information thread around the global net without disturbing anyone around you. As soon as you hit unexpected sound, that joy is abruptly shattered. The page that offends in this way is not likely to be revisited!"
Fancy Techniques
Fancy techniques such as moving windows, dynamic and hierarchical menus, and other goodies have the potential to become annoying very, very quickly. And repeat visitors don't want to see the same tricks over and over again. What seems cool or grabs someone's attention the first time often wears thin over (a short) time. One of my pet annoyances is the navigational menu (or advertisement, or graphic) that follows me down the page no matter how I scroll. It's effective the first time, but it wears out its welcome rather quickly. The same thing applies to the DHTML effects of snow falling over your page, hearts trailing behind your cursors, butterflies flitting around the display, etc.
Decide whether these are appropriate for your page before plugging them in, and think about how many times a visitor is going to want to deal with them before they lose their appeal. Yeah, the Flash animations and the DHTML and JavaScript menus and effects usually look great. But they can also try the patience of visitors, especially repeat visitors, and a single mistake or glitch in your JavaScript or DHTML code can cause your page to load improperly, impelling your visitors to go elsewhere. If there's one characteristic endemic to Web surfers, it's impatience with page problems. Whether the problem lies within the site's code or the old, clunky browser your patron is using to visit your site, the end result is the same -- they leave.
On the other hand, one fancy effect to consider is the use of "aural style sheets" and/or "Braille style sheets" to present your text to users with visual and/or hearing limitations. As of now, considering it is all you can do, as no browser I'm aware of is implementing ACSS or BCSS. But it's such a good idea that I can't believe it won't appear in a forthcoming browser upgrade. It's definitely something of which to keep abreast.
A Commercial Appearance
Your site may be frankly and unabashedly commercial. Still, if it looks like an ad site, people are going to bail out. Banner ads, pop-up windows, flashing or intrusive graphics, scrolling text, "busy' or "loud" design, and other staples of Web advertising can turn off the average Web user faster than just about anything else you can use.
Even if you use them with restraint, most surfers routinely ignore information presented in a typical Web banner, they click out (or block) pop-ups without looking at them, and block, disable, scroll past, or otherwise get rid of annoying animations. I know Aunt Gracie gets a headache whenever a graphic flashes at her. You may not have an audience of Aunt Gracies, but you most likely have an audience that's savvy enough to flee if you overload them with "typical" advertising behaviors. It's worth the time and effort it will take to find an alternative (and does anyone appreciate pop-up displays that extend well past the right margin?).