I think it's 0 seconds. Seriously, we had this conversation in-house today and I am surprised that (1) we are still building Flash intros; (2) that we'd build something (on the web) that needs an intro, a (required) tutorial; and (3) that the we slice the pie such that we look to solve the problem in this tutorial rather than in the whole interface. Our in-house designer responded "well, it's not an intro, it's a tutorial." Maybe it's not the designer's problem to solve. Maybe the director can help you out with some negotiating skills.
I pitch something like www.southwest.com's clear starting points for the primary tasks or what blogger has done with their 'what is it?' and 'easy as 1-2-3' overviews. That's a homepage component. It reinforces the value, the main actions/tasks, and explicitly communicates the navigation and interaction. Arguing to the example of smilebooks.com: Compare the value of that woman with her hands up in the air to a '1-2-3' diagram. I see a task to replace the stock photos with informative graphics. If you have to give instructions or directions to a task, I think of the "hover invitation" pattern in the YUI library as the concept to follow. It combines help on demand with error prevention to show people as they need it. Taking over a UI to show people how and/or why to use it is just wrong. Think of the physical analogy: What if someone got up in your grill when you walked into a store and explained to you how to shop in their store. That's not help, it's Woolworth's gone wild. </soapbox> </ahem> I hope this helps. Sincerely. -Jay On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 1:05 PM, Anthony Zeoli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What¹s the recommended time to run a Flash movie introducing a site, its > content and available tools to a new user on arrival. > > Example, see http://www.smilebooks.com/ > > I think this one runs for 8-9 seconds end to end. > > Thanks! > -- > > Anthony Zeoli | ZAAH.COM > VP Product & Business Development > > e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > +1 631.873.2007 | Direct > +1 631.873.2007 | Main > +1 917.705.4700 | Mobile > +1 631.873.2050 | Fax > > AIM: djtonyz | Yahoo: anthonyzeoli | MSN: djtonyz | Skype: tonyzeoli | > Twitter: djtonyz > > 6 Dubon Court > Farmingdale, NY 11735 > > This document contains proprietary and confidential information, which are > the exclusive property of Zaah Technologies, Inc. Unauthorized use of this > or any document, marked confidential is strictly prohibited. > Copyright(c) 2008 Zaah Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Jay A. Morgan ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
