5 ms·

Slightly off-topic, but never auto-play video (or audio) content on a website. If I want it to be played, I click on it, otherwise it's just annoying.

by tsahyt 14y ago

antidoh 14y ago
This is one of the two benefits of flashblock for me. If I want to watch a video, I click on the circled F, otherwise it's just a box that takes up space. The other benefit is that I don't give my cycles and peace to flash advertisements.
- tsahyt 14y ago
  The cycles part is actually non-negligible. Those things are usually so horribly written that they'll eat up processing time in big chunks. But that's not a Flash-only problem. I've seen JS-things on webpages actually spinning up my laptops fans even though there was really nothing much on the screen, and it's not like I've got a bad laptop either. It's not high-end but an i7 with 8gb of RAM shouldn't notice the load of a pretty average webpage. But that's just my 2 cents.
  - ZoFreX 14y ago
    My dad didn't understand why his (admittedly quite old) laptop really struggles on some websites. For most of his usage - buying tickets, checking emails - it suffices just fine, but a badly coded flash advert can bring the entire machine to a crawl. It was very difficult to convince him that yes, it was actually the crappy slideshow advert on one tab that was making his entire computer unusable.
tomazstolfa 14y ago
I agree with you. The embed does not have a non-autoplay option.
bluetidepro 14y ago
I'm glad someone beat me to this. This is the first thing I thought when I went to the post. It soured my opinion of the whole article before I even read it because of that small usability mistake.
- dkrich 14y ago
  "It soured my opinion of the whole article before I even read it" Seriously? The fact that an embedded video started playing soured your opinion of the article? Maybe you guys should chill out a bit. Sometimes comments like this lead me to believe the author wants recognition at somebody else's expense.
  - bluetidepro 14y ago
    I'm not saying I didn't read the article because of it but it does just start the article off with a bit of annoyance. You can't argue that anywhere you enjoy going in the online or physical world is determined by emotional responses. Imagine when you got to a restaurant that has music annoying loud. You may still enjoy the dinner food, but you had a bad experience eating the good food because you were annoyed with the music. That scenario similar to this article. You could still enjoy the article content but you were annoyed because of the bad experience. And after so many of those bad experiences you may just think "you know what, I'd rather eat somewhere not as good just because I won't be annoyed by loud music." If you don't think that small things like this (that can easily add up over time) do change how your viewers see your site/company (regardless of the content), then you need to think again. However, I could be wrong. I mean, everyone did love the animated images, colors, and sounds on GeoCities which lead to their industry takeover and incredible success. ;)
    - dkrich 14y ago
      "However, I could be wrong. I mean, everyone did love the animated images, colors, and sounds on GeoCities which lead to their industry takeover and incredible success." Let's not just assume that all annoyances are created equal. One is an integrally bad user experience, the only way out of which is to stop using the service wholesale. The other amounts to mousing-over a large area of the screen and clicking a button.
ed209 14y ago
that's a bit of a sweeping statement. I would agree with you if the autoplayed video has audio or is instructional in some way. In the article I agree it should not auto-play However, auto-play can be nice in the right setting. Lots of car manufacturers auto-play video as part of the design. Or some product shots like the MackBook page where the laptop opens and spins is nice.
dkrich 14y ago
I completely disagree. I thought that was pretty cool actually. I rarely view videos embedded in articles unless they autoplay.
diggan 14y ago
Agree. Since I tend to skimread the frontpage and open all links I think is interesting in new tabs, autoplay leads to a closed tab without even looking.

Slightly off-topic, but never auto-play video (or audio) content on a website. If I want it to be played, I click on it, otherwise it's just annoying.

by tsahyt 14y ago

Slightly off-topic, but never auto-play video (or audio) content on a website. If I want it to be played, I click on it, otherwise it's just annoying.

antidoh 14y ago

This is one of the two benefits of flashblock for me. If I want to watch a video, I click on the circled F, otherwise it's just a box that takes up space. The other benefit is that I don't give my cycles and peace to flash advertisements.

tsahyt 14y ago
The cycles part is actually non-negligible. Those things are usually so horribly written that they'll eat up processing time in big chunks. But that's not a Flash-only problem. I've seen JS-things on webpages actually spinning up my laptops fans even though there was really nothing much on the screen, and it's not like I've got a bad laptop either. It's not high-end but an i7 with 8gb of RAM shouldn't notice the load of a pretty average webpage. But that's just my 2 cents.
- ZoFreX 14y ago
  My dad didn't understand why his (admittedly quite old) laptop really struggles on some websites. For most of his usage - buying tickets, checking emails - it suffices just fine, but a badly coded flash advert can bring the entire machine to a crawl. It was very difficult to convince him that yes, it was actually the crappy slideshow advert on one tab that was making his entire computer unusable.

tomazstolfa 14y ago

I agree with you. The embed does not have a non-autoplay option.

bluetidepro 14y ago

I'm glad someone beat me to this. This is the first thing I thought when I went to the post. It soured my opinion of the whole article before I even read it because of that small usability mistake.

dkrich 14y ago
"It soured my opinion of the whole article before I even read it" Seriously? The fact that an embedded video started playing soured your opinion of the article? Maybe you guys should chill out a bit. Sometimes comments like this lead me to believe the author wants recognition at somebody else's expense.
- bluetidepro 14y ago
  I'm not saying I didn't read the article because of it but it does just start the article off with a bit of annoyance. You can't argue that anywhere you enjoy going in the online or physical world is determined by emotional responses. Imagine when you got to a restaurant that has music annoying loud. You may still enjoy the dinner food, but you had a bad experience eating the good food because you were annoyed with the music. That scenario similar to this article. You could still enjoy the article content but you were annoyed because of the bad experience. And after so many of those bad experiences you may just think "you know what, I'd rather eat somewhere not as good just because I won't be annoyed by loud music." If you don't think that small things like this (that can easily add up over time) do change how your viewers see your site/company (regardless of the content), then you need to think again. However, I could be wrong. I mean, everyone did love the animated images, colors, and sounds on GeoCities which lead to their industry takeover and incredible success. ;)
  - dkrich 14y ago
    "However, I could be wrong. I mean, everyone did love the animated images, colors, and sounds on GeoCities which lead to their industry takeover and incredible success." Let's not just assume that all annoyances are created equal. One is an integrally bad user experience, the only way out of which is to stop using the service wholesale. The other amounts to mousing-over a large area of the screen and clicking a button.

ed209 14y ago

that's a bit of a sweeping statement. I would agree with you if the autoplayed video has audio or is instructional in some way. In the article I agree it should not auto-play However, auto-play can be nice in the right setting. Lots of car manufacturers auto-play video as part of the design. Or some product shots like the MackBook page where the laptop opens and spins is nice.

dkrich 14y ago

I completely disagree. I thought that was pretty cool actually. I rarely view videos embedded in articles unless they autoplay.

diggan 14y ago

Agree. Since I tend to skimread the frontpage and open all links I think is interesting in new tabs, autoplay leads to a closed tab without even looking.