Monthly Archives: April 2011

Internet Explorer 9

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It’s a great idea, and fun to design for Internet Explorer 9. HTML 5 ready to go.

Until you realize IE9 won’t run on Windows XP at all – and 55% of PCs still use Windows XP. There goes the fun. As a web designer it’s fun to push the limits and see what can be created, but a website which is can’t be seen on 55% of computers doesn’t serve the owner -unless they have the budget to allow you to create the various versions/hacks for backward compatibility.

Microsoft still has a huge share of the browser market with 56+%, but it’s down from 68+%. FireFox is next at 21+%…used to love that browser, but all the add-ons have often become more trouble than worth trying to track  down the trouble spot.

Nice to hear Microsoft is advocating users stop using Internet Explorer 6 – this is the most troublesome browser to gain compatibility. It requires it’s own style-sheet just to get it near the original design and functionality. RIP IE6!

To Video or not

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Video helps drive a website. It is true.

Video can be in the form of a slide show. A combination of still photos and video is typically the nicest – wonderful possibilities for something creative.

Video has come a long way, and yet still is simple.  You see a lot of home filmed informational videos. As a business owner you can create something informational: “how to” and show the process of what your business creates.  Look at what is out there, take notes of what is missing in the videos you view, to help you create your own; then give it a new spin.  How-to video allows far less creativity as the draw is simply educational.

But video to drive your website is fast becoming as slick as TV commercials with a gimmick, clever hook and something eye catching. Particularly if your video is NOT a how to you’ll want to push the envelope.  A drawn out, slow paced video isn’t enough, anymore. You’ll see these a lot on yellow page advertising – they used to be a nice additional “something moving”, but it’s not enough – the generic video just can’t do much for you. You really need polish to an ad video. The good news: people watch shorter and shorter videos. If you don’t catch them in the first 30 seconds, they will probably move on. Statistics are reducing the length of this ad based video from 5 minutes to 1.5 minute.  Shorter videos can be less labor intense!

Think of TV commercials – short and to the punch.

YouTube is doing a lot of 15 second and 30 second “instream” ad clips on YouTube videos. The owner allows it (there is a payment much like Google’s AdSense), and there are companies selling the service, you can also do-it-yourself. Create your video and submit to YouTube (owned by Google). For a set fee it will be placed on other videos for X number of “impressions”. There is a lot of skepticism if this will work, since so many of us click off these commercials. But right now is a good time to test the waters before saturation sets in.

If you create a video and post it on YouTube consider the above “negative” – people clicking OFF your video IF you choose to allow the ads. If your purpose is to educate or drive your website your video needs to be seen. Check out instream advertising.