Website of The Day | VIZIO.com

VIZIO.com

Here is a good example of a Flash site putting Flash to good use.

One

First, it’s VIZIO, they have money to spend. They can afford to spend thousands on building an awesome Flash site, and not suffer a dramatic blow. Generally, when it comes to small business you can skip a Flash intro because great ones cost well into the thousands like $3000 and up. Flash sites even more, anywhere from $5000 to $20,000 or more. The VIZIO site falls into this category. So far a small businesses it is okay to add some flash to the site in terms of navigation buttons and maybe some video content. Why? Well, one of the top clicked buttons on the web is: the [Skip] button on Flash intros. Flash slows down a person’s computer. There is a rule in web design, if it takes more than 10 to 20 seconds for the page to load, visitors end up clicking away from the site. Plus, people just want to get to the information they seek, so they skip the intro. So, is it really worth spending the money on Flash, in terms of small business?

Two

Second, VIZIO premiered their new Via TV with built in wireless technology during the Super Bowl. The commercial struck my cousins and me as a Android commercial at first. Then it quickly revealed out of nowhere the TV that connects to the web wirelessly. They built up great suspense. Therefore, the site for the new TV is great in how they use Flash to further the curiosity and build the excitement in being able to purchase a TV, for your house, that connects to the Internet.

Right away, you can see that thought was put into its design. It matches the commercial that aired during last night’s Super Bowl. Creating consistency between what viewers watched on TV and see on the website. It also loads quickly always good, Remember viewers navigate away from pages that take too long to load, people want their information and fast. The commercial for the TV automatically starts playing getting straight to the point, introducing VIZIO’s new baby.

Three

Third,it is interactive as well, it allows you to “explore” its features. You are able to click on different internet apps to see how it would look on the TV screen. It gives you a view of how it would look to pull up your Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr accounts. Imagine being able when you have company over you can quickly show your latest status update or the new picture you just posted up on Flickr straight from your TV. There would be no need to turn on the computer and wait for it to boot up, then sign in to your account and navigate to the location of what you are trying to show. You will be able to do it in seconds with a couple of clicks of the remote. Better yet imagine you are laying in bed, shut the computer down for the night, watching some TV, and a alert comes on your phone of a new Tweet linked to a site. You want to check the site out right then, but you do not really want to look at it from your phone because it loads to slow, are you cannot fully enjoy it on the tiny screen, or you phone does not playback the video. Well, just watch it from the TV without having to get up.

Four

Fourth as you navigate through the Flash site, there is background noise of machinery moving things around. It stays consistent with the robotic arms theme. The site also made sure to include a way to turn the background sound off. This is a key element, because as people navigate through a site the noise can become annoying to them and they want it to shut up and stop. Not good to force your users to have to mute their computer just so they can enjoy the site without all the noise. They can click the [Sound Off] bottom at the top. Now a not so good element of the site is that you have to search or just assume that there is a [Sound Off] bottom somewhere on the site and hunt for it. After about 20 seconds while clicking around on the site I got annoyed by the background sounds and wanted it to shut up so I searched around the site to mute it. I found it in the upper-right corner of the site. It is barely visible; you have to squint and mover closer to the screen to make out the words. It blends in with the background, as well as the [Share This] link. These are two key functions you want your site visitors to see clearly. They should not be hidden. It is as if the designer is saying, “Hey, I spent a lot of time designing this site and creating the background loop for this site. I want everyone who visits this site to listen to it”. More importantly, VIZIO is trying to sell a product, get it out there so people can know it is out there, and so people buy it. The [Share This] link needs to be spotted immediately by site visitors. Make it easy for viewers to share your site, do not make them work for it. Viewers are more likely to share a site if they only have to click a link and it go straight to their platform (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc) of choice by signing in to their account, or if they already have their account open in the browser it will just post without signing in. So make sure your “Share This” link is clearly visible and easy for viewers to quickly share your site with others.

Five

Lastly, the site is a little dark. This can make it hard at times to fully see the site, especially if you are viewing the site at night, with the lights on. The black on the screen is perfect for reflecting the light and what is surrounding the monitor, like my reflection, my bed, and tons of glares. I am not able to fully make out the shape of the TVs on the “Via Products” page or the other pages for that matter. It makes me want to turn on the light within the site, as if I am in a dimly lit room.

Conclusion

Overall, the site is cool and makes some good use of Flash. It grabs my attention, makes me more interested about the TV, and excited about it.

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