No doubt, Flash is obsolete in the current web development community, but splash page designing is not. Entertainment and children related websites still need to design splash pages. Therefore, I have decided to convey a few words with you on this topic; so here are some insights about splash page designs.
Flash Era
I still have good memories of the early 2000s being the Flash era. At that time, web audiences were willing to wait a few extra seconds to see some astounding displays come on the screen. Web designers then were competing to make the introduction page or opening page of a website more visually appealing via Flash.
Modern Era
Today, the audience is virtually the same with similar desires for visual design. However, technologies have changed, with perhaps more advanced web formats, such as HTML 5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, and various other OOP scripts. These are replacing, or have replaced Flash completely, by allowing search engines to crawl our site and load pages quickly. No doubt, we can’t get the same kinds of astounding effects with scripting that you can get with Flash, but fulfilling the criteria of bots and performance is a greater choice for most professional developers and designers.
Benefits
Splash pages grab the immediate attention of site visitors and keep them engaged for more seconds on the page and ultimately on the website. Perhaps this is the reason that modern businesses are now tending more towards splash page creation for their websites than they were previously. When we let our visitors land directly on the home page, we take some risks, because visitors have to scan the entire home page to get ideas about the purpose of our website and whether they will get what it is they are seeking.
Splash pages save businesses from these risks by providing an excellent opportunity to present these significant messages upon the first encounter, without making visitors have to navigate further. Moreover, splash designing lets you update information by modifying these pages, per your wishes. You can thus remain contemporary and capable of capturing quality traffic.
If a smart web designer uses splash pages carefully, she can reduce the bounce rate drastically, since the designer delivers all relevant information first hand. If you are an analytic pro, you can use your server logs to drill down the behavior and problems of your customers, through splash pages.
Candidate Sites for Splash Pages
In some cases, splash pages are a must. For example: you have a subscription-only or private website with extremely sensitive information and you require log-in just to enter, or a game site where, without token or log-in, you can’t access the home page. In such scenarios, splash pages work on two fronts; it gives good visual impact, plus prohibits users from entering the website without prior permissions.
In some cases, splash pages make a big difference in presentation, where say us web designers wish to highlight our latest portfolio items or wish to show our design capabilities. By creating splendid splash pages, we demonstrate elevated presentation skills. Many advertising businesses also wish to flex their design muscles on splash pages. Businesses which mostly deal with multimedia content, like design studios, movie houses, photography websites, tourism companies, kids sites and other entertainment websites that may have nothing tangible to show, can use splash pages. They offer 2D and 3D visual presentations to garner attention through these latest technologies and techniques.
If your website wants to show animations, you never have to bother visitors with loading time. The web audience still craves creativity on your splash pages. Historically, commercial sites didn’t use splash pages due to its biggest drawback, loading time. As stated earlier, modern design and programming technologies have made it possible to overcome this famous drawback. If you have good knowledge of SEO or SEO backing, you will have an edge over your competitors due to splash page benefits without losing ranking or customers.
References & More Reading
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