Looped video on splash/home page the new trend?

[paulk7737514]

Is this now de rigueur for all web portfolio websites? Such as here: https://www.canvasunited.com/

I find it vaguely annoying, but if having a 3-slide slideshow in the banner makes me look old fashioned and out-of-date, then I suppose I'd better look for some video footage. As if fuzzy black and white footage of people exercising has anything to do with web design.

[paulk7737514]

And the site cannot be scrolled using the pg dn key, which I find really annoying. But other than that, I have to admit it is certainly impressive. So do all new portfolio websites need to conform to this style?

[Jon Fritz]

I don't know about "required" but the "reveal as you scroll effect" is in-style for this kind of site.

They do a lot wrong on that page. More wrong than right in my opinion. I probably wouldn't use their services, if I could find them.

[paulk7737514]

That's my point. That rightly or wrongly once a trend is established it becomes necessary for all web design companies to update their sites or risk looking old=fashioned and irrelevant.

Incidentally, what do you find wrong on the site? It's obviously a fairly high-end company.

[Jon Fritz]

It obviously appears to be a high end company. That's the fun part about web design, you can make any 10-15 employee company look like they make millions on top of millions doing whatever it is they do.

There's actually no video on the site that I can see. It appears to be entirely made up of animation using html5 canvas tag and svg paths. Which is very future-forward, but the stuff they did wrong...

To get off the home page without going to their portfolio pieces, the viewer has to have a scroll wheel. They have to spin it around 30 times or so (at least in Firefox on a PC) while a very slow reveal/hide effect takes place. All other scrolling options at this point have been removed. Arrow keys, page up/down, all disabled. That's inexcusable in my opinion.

Another issue is random, mystery meat icons that may or may not animate and explain themselves. On a desktop, they're tiny buttons on the bottom right you can hover over to see what they are. On a phone, they're even tinier buttons that are difficult to tap with no explanation at all what they do.

Animation for animation's sake isn't very helpful to interface design. The swipe between "pages" (when you actually use the scroll wheel to see more info about the company itself) is obnoxious after the first couple times. To add to it, it's easy to accidentally set it off, appearing glitchy, on a phone. Another problem related to that effect is it's not swiping between actual pages. It's swiping between non-bookmarkable information on one page.

For all the work they did, they don't actually say much. Nobody actually looking to hire this company is going to spin their mousewheel 100 times + to get the little dot to move to the starburst so they can see the remainder of the info on the Ethos page. The up/down arrows work here, but show a blank page unless/until you spend your time to get the "nifty for nifty's sake" move the dot along the spaghetti effect to fire.

There's more, but if that's the first couple pages, a typical viewer has already moved on to something else.

In their drive to be as cutting edge as possible, they're going to alienate potential customers and push them to competitor sites that aren't "broken".

[Jon Fritz]

Ah, now I see the video background.

Only in Chrome though. In FF I just have a static background.

[paulk7737514]

Could it be an ad blocker you have installed? I am using Firefox and can see the video banner.

[Jon Fritz]

It's possible I suppose...

But if it doesn't work with one of the run-of-the-mill ad/spam/pop-up blocking add-ons I have installed, does the site actually "work" in the first place?

[paulk7737514]

Here is the second one of the portfolio websites featured and I can't even figure out what it is they do or sell: https://www.joaodealmeida.pt/

[paulk7737514]

And here is another with text you can't even read with all sorts of random images flickering on and off in the background!!

[occulus.nigra]

Personally, that website is a PIA. I would definitely rank it as poor for user-friendliness and browsing flexibility.

[Nancy OShea]

This site does not support landscape browsing.

Please rotate your device to continue.

I have to give this a thumbs down.  The UI is terrible.

[paulk7737514]

So did you place your monitor on its side as you were instructed?

[paulk7737514]

I found this website on the Awwwards page for best portfolio websites. https://www.awwwards.com/websites/portfolio/

In its relatively difficult navigation, at least to leave the splash page, and in some of its effects--for instance, the "Visit Site" links use the "transform: matrix" CSS property to create an effect that resembles Flash effects on mouse hover--you have to wonder if the disappearance of Flash has kindled a market for these kinds of Flash-like sites which require a bit of imagination and engagement on the part of the user.

[Nancy OShea]

paulk7737514  wrote

you have to wonder if the disappearance of Flash has kindled a market for these kinds of Flash-like sites...

Maybe.  After all, what will the Action Script programmers do after Flash Player officially ends 2020?

I don't mind animation as long as it doesn't just say "watch me, watch me!"  and get in the way of usability.  I think it's possible to have a great UI and an exciting website.  The 2 things are not mutually exclusive.

Nancy

[osgood_]

paulk7737514  wrote

Is this now de rigueur for all web portfolio websites? Such as here: https://www.canvasunited.com/

I find it vaguely annoying, but if having a 3-slide slideshow in the banner makes me look old fashioned and out-of-date, then I suppose I'd better look for some video footage. As if fuzzy black and white footage of people exercising has anything to do with web design.

I looked at a couple of those links on a tablet and nothing worked, so all I can assume is they don't want the work.

[pziecina]

All that site proves to me is that canvas and css animations should not be used too create full sites.

[paulk7737514]

This is a link to a site they did. http://www.thebeekman.com/

The animation is outstanding, but the site looks remarkably similar in design to their own site. I wonder if they have some sort of general template creation device they base all their sites on.

[Nancy OShea]

At least this one has a scrollbar I can use.

[occulus.nigra]

Suspect it's a template.

[paulk7737514]

Just found it again here!: https://batterseapowerstation.co.uk/

[osgood_]

paulk7737514  wrote

This is a link to a site they did. http://www.thebeekman.com/

The animation is outstanding, but the site looks remarkably similar in design to their own site. I wonder if they have some sort of general template creation device they base all their sites on.

Whilst this kind of thing is undoubteldy highly skilled there is a lot to be desired and you have to ask - are they just more annoying in some cases, than really useful.

If you view the rooms initially there is a side menu which drops down and you can select a room to view. If you choose either 'Superior King', Deluxe King or Premium King'. the page scrolls down to the selected room but the Rooms menu disappears making it impossible to select another room to view. Even clicking on the main top naviagation ROOMS tab does NOT reset the rooms drop down in the sidebar. The only way back is to manually scroll up again.

Strangely if you select the last room in the list of room the Rooms menu remains in place.

These kinds of things can drive one nuts if you are a user.

And does one really want to keep watching the animation of the letter 'b' each and ever time you select a main menu tab, I cant really see the point in that.

So credit to the skill involved but maybe they can be too fussy and miss the point.....