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There's a good reason. Two of them, actually. This particular animation in a video format would take 10 seconds of running time. It would also take few seconds
by huhtenberg 13y ago
There's a good reason. Two of them, actually.
This particular animation in a video format would take 10 seconds of running time. It would also take few seconds to load and initialize whatever video playing widget it'd be using. That would make it for an oddly short video and one of those "What? That's it?" situations. So it simply wouldn't work as the only content on the page. OTOH, if you present it as an interactive animation, it will take users longer to work their way through it and so it would feel more substantial.
Secondary reason is that it makes the page more memorable and helps it stick in more people's heads than some yet another embedded video. The goal of the page is to engage people. This is the reason why you'd want to have things presented rather than just thrown on a page in black and white Times New Roman / 12px. You want your page to engage and clicking on Play Video is not engagement, it's a reflex. So by forcing visitors to do something out of their routine the page, effectively, makes them to pay more attention than usual.
- mhb 13y agoNeither of those reasons is compelling. A short video is a feature and a long video is a disincentive to viewing it. Not everything that's memorable is good. I was happy to see the "play" button alternative to the scrolling interaction. I used the play button, enjoyed the video and believe I will remember it without experiencing the annoyance of having to manually play it using the scroll bar.
- mattmanser 13y agoI've consulted for a video production company and seen them do these, there's no way this would be a 10 sec video. Try speaking it clearly and slowly as a voiceover artist would as you go through the slides. 'Meet Bob. Bob is a fisherman. He runs his own store and has an online store [boom, there's your 10 secs]'. Memorable isn't good if they don't get to the sales ptch, which most people wouldn't. Personally I completely agree with modernerd, this would have been a waste of time and money if it wasn't novel enough to get featured on HN or /r/programming or stuff for a few extra sales. For its stated purpose, it's useless.