Bad banner – http://whatismae.com/

While I love this band, I must say that their promotional website and their main flash banner is lacking immensely. All there is to it is just the same three rotating images and a few hover links on the bottom with a very simple link hover action. I believe they could have done more with the flash banner, making it more interactive and more visually appealing. We are all learning there is a vast multitude of things you can do with Flash and I think this webmaster used the bare minimum in creating this website.

Good banner – http://www.paramore.net/home

The top banner on this site is more interactive that the Mae banner. It’s more visually appealing and has more going on than just looping images. This site uses the banner to promote their video documentaries for when this band is on tour. To make a user more inclined to click on these videos, they made the video link expand to see more precisely what video it is. It is eye-catching and more user-friendly by making these links accessible right on the homepage banner. There is even a scrolling option so the entire library of video documentaries is right there on the banner.

This weeks review of good and bad banners was quite challenging. First, finding a site that used flash banners aren’t the easiest to find. But once you looked around, finding good ones could be seen in any of the major goods and service providers. The most interesting of these was the SKITTLES website (www.skittles.com) where you are met with not really a website but just a a index/header box asking for your age. Looking into this, you are taken to what seems like a youtube profile page for skittles. Further research into the skittles strategy showed that this header/index page could be found in a number of social networking sites such as twitter (twitter.com/skittles) and that was the extent of the page. This shows how skittles is on the forefront of consumer cooperation. Although the success of the strategy is debateable, it is certainly an interesting way to approach the use of banner/header and a website.

A not so effective banner was the Yamaha site (http://www.global.yamaha.com/index.html). I chose this only because the picture of the piano on the site seemed out of focus and I believe it should atleast be focused. Other than that, it is a simple but effective menu option, and i’m not even sure it counts as a banner other than that, it is the first graphic material on the page.

For my Good Banner, I picked UPS‘s banner because it coveyed its meaning well. The text wasnt scrolled across the banner too quickly but at the same time it coveyed speed. The banner also has 3 links on the bottom, the pictures in the background could be better but overall I believe that this banner has done its job with a decent image and use of text but lacks music or sound clips in the background.

For my Bad Banner, I chose a banner from active ride shops it has a link to buy a transworld magazine. I thought this banner had bad use of colors in the text, and didnt convey the meaning of the magazine. The basics of the link are understood but I believe that this banner could have been greatly improved upon. This is a banner that I would pass right over normally because it is very small and doesnt have anything to pull my attention towards it. It is hidden at the bottom of the page but I guess they dont expect transworld’s magazine link to sell many copies.

G4 tv (good banner)

Upon reaching the homepage one of the first things you see is the large banner on the left side of the page. The purpose of it is to basically allow visitors a chance to view latest news in the gaming and technology world as well as reviews for newly released games. In my opinion it works mainly because it’s one of the first things you see. The design is also pretty good in the sense that it stays true to both the website in general and the television channel.

White Castle (bad banner)

Upon reaching the site we see a banner for craveiscalling.com, which is part of White Castle’s main promotional campaign. The banner doesn’t really do much except link to to a new flash website. In my opinion the banner completely fails as there is no sound, no interaction other then the link, and the image isn’t really that good.

http://www.buzzoffer.com/

This website BuzzOffer has a very simple yet interesting banner that grabs the viewer’s attention. I thought the color was used very well because it was consistent with the rest of the website and was also bright and fun to look at. The texts along with the animated images were also used to catch reader’s attention while explaining a little about the benefits of the website. I liked the way some effects were used to introduce characters or objects into the scene. For instance, the money and falling pennies helped to make the messages more visual and promoted different free offers that the website provides.  

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2007/11/apple_sign.php

This is also another eye-catching banner. I thought they used a very creative concept. In this case, Mac was speaking with PC/Vista and asking about the button PC is holding, and PC tried to make all the lights that spell out “Don’t Give Up on Vista” go on but it never worked. On the actual websites this banner was shown, the words were placed on the top of the site’s homepage while the PC and Mac guy were speaking on the lower right corner with no background. I liked this banner ad a lot because it was very different from what a banner usually look like. The design was very simple and straight to the point.  

http://contentmanagementsoftwares.net/flash_banner_designing.htm

This banner is not as effective as the previous ones. Although the visual idea was simple and pretty it did not really deliver the content or the message of the ad. The color choice was good, red was very eye catching but somehow I didn’t think the gift box make sense. I thought the banner would work much better if there was an image of a globe or a phone to represent that’s it’s for international calls. The visuals used didn’t connect with the texts. 

Good Banner

I thought this was an excellent use of a banner for a website. The introduction was eye catching with the truck driving along the road and then the workers come out to tell all what a great cereal they produce. The rest is interactive so the viewer can get to the information needed just by scrolling over a worker. In a way it is like a formal presentation of introducing a new product for the market. Each worker does their part with a little sales pitch and  a click link. The colors of the real world image work well with the background color of the website.

Work in Progress Banner

This banner for Maracas is simply a series of pictures taken in the night club. The surrounding border of the slideshow has a nice texture that meshes with the pictures. I think the designer should have included more pictures in the slideshow and also have numerous effects of changing from one picture to another other than dissolve. One good thing is that music is provided as the slideshow progresses and even if the page is changed within the website.

Princess Cruises’ website has a beautiful banner that can be found here: http://www.princess.com/.  It slowly plays elegant and breathtaking pictures of the cruise line.  There are images of the dining area, the pool, the exterior view of a ship, and many more.  I like it that the banner plays the images at a slow pace so that its viewers can admire the scenes before them.  It gives a feeling of relaxation.  The images are also very sharp and crisp, which make them aesthetically pleasing.  Lastly, I like the interactiveness of the banner.  It allows me to visit other webpages.  It’s also a plus that it replays itself.

On the other hand, Sleepy’s banner is not well made.  It can be found here: http://www.sleepys.com/.  It is very plain and it plays only once.  It sends the message that the price of the mattress is half off, but it does not use flash effectively.  The designer could have conveyed the same message without using flash.  Even though a red color is used, the banner still looks a little dull.  The blue color might look better if it were darker.  Towards the end of the flash animation, the “Twin 2PC Set” and “Full 2PC Set” shrink, but I don’t think it really adds to the advertisement.  The regular prices are also too small at the end of the animation.  It might be better if the designer had made the prices bigger and then crossed them out with a flash application.

Good Banner

I think that the animation banner from Neopets.com is pretty good. This site is a game site targeted for kids and the banners are advertisements targeted for them. The banners are really colorful which attracts the kids a lot. The banner is not really flashy and only a small portion of them it is emphasized (e.g. the cartoon character and the button “play”.  If you put you mouse on top of the banner, the banner will drop down which allows audience that are interested to see more of the ad. I think this is a pretty good way to do the animation banner because its there and you don’t really get annoy over it.

Bad Banner

I thinkthe animation banners on dictionary.com are examples of bad banners because its not that visualize. The banners either have the product there and then have words sliding across or the product zipping acorss the banner and then the prices come out and then stop. I think that this type of banner is really common and commercial. It doesn’t catches the users’ eyes, thus making them want to look into the banner and learn more about it.

Good banner

This modern banner is found on a portfolio site. The loading screen is simple but interesting. This is an interactive banner so there are instructions during the loading process that explains.

When it’s finished loading, an image appears. You can zoom in on the image, zoom out, move it around, and show outlines. I thought this was pretty interesting. This banner is a nice preview to what we can expect to see in this portfolio site. The zoom in feature is my favorite. Banners are usually small in size so the content within the banner might be too small. Letting the user interact and zoom in on details is a nice touch.

Bad banner

Ad for Newfoundland Labrador Canada

This ad has terrible animation. It’s just a photo of the coastline for the background. Then there’s a separate image of two people walking across the coastline. The way they walk is very jagged and not smooth. It looks awkward. They start off really small on the left side of the banner. Then they start walking to the right and get larger (image1). When they are near the far right, their heads turns sideways and gives us a big smile (image2) then walks away and disappears. At the very last frame, the logo appears.  I did not think this was a very good advertisement.

http://www.luckymag.com/

On the home page of the “Lucky” magazine’s online publishing there is an ad that invites you to sign up for the “Self Challenge”. This ad in my opinion is very well done with the use of movement in the rotation of the petal like shapes with the “wishes” of the participants and also how the petals took on the form of a butterfly and flew off. The use of the background picture of a beach was kind of “cheezy” but still the colours were interesting and captivating. The font they used was readable and “fun” and the colour being hot pink would make people pay more attention to it.

http://www.instyle.com/instyle/

On the home page of the online version of “In Style” magazine there is a banner ad that claims it can help you find your perfect celebrity haistyle. This ad to me is very boring with just a stark white background and the quality of the photos used are poor. Even though I know they used the red and white to keep with the theme of the magazine I think they could have jazzed up the ad a little bit to make it a bit more eye catching.

Good banner:

I received an invitation to a party by email, and when I went to the website, I found the ooVoo banner in the middle. I like this banner. I think it is very clean and attractive, and it actually made me click on it. When I clicked on it I was transferred to the company’s website. I have noticed that the banner is designed with the same concept of the website – clean, same colors, and fonts. It also made me download the program and try it. I think a good banner is a banner that conveys a message simply and makes you curious. This banner made me curious to see what ooVoo is all about and even click on it. I think this company did a good job attracting people to the banner and to download the program.  Also I think it fits the website where it is located. The website also has a pretty clean design, and the banner’s colors and website fit together. I also like the banner’s location; it separates the invitation from the RSVP form.

Bad banner:

In the USA Today website, there’s a small Sprint banner. The colors work, but I don’t think the banner works in general.  The cards with the text on are disappearing too fast, so it’s hard to read. Also I don’t like the fact that the banner is not in a loop, because if I go to another window that is open in my browser and get back all I see is the text, and it doesn’t attract me to read it and find out what it’s about. The good thing about it is that it is consistent with the Sprint website. Also it is located on the left side of the website and is pretty small, so it’s hard to notice it. I think a bad banner doesn’t necessarily have to be designed badly, but if it’s not attracting you, and make you click it, it loses its purpose.

The Hallmark website for Free E-Cards, Photo Cards, Greeting Cards, and many other categories of cards has a banner on its front page where you are able to choose the type of card that you are looking for. When you scroll over the card categories you are able to see a preview and what you will expect if you clicked on that category. The banner is very colorful and has nice images but if compared to the banner for the Barnes and Noble website, it is not as interesting and fun to look at. The banner for the Barnes and Noble website is a great banner showing Barnes and Noble’s “Picks of the Week.” The images of the items scroll along the banner and fade away as it reaches the end. When you scroll over the items with your cursor, the moving banner stops and information for the item, such as item name and price, pops up. I think the banner was very nicely done. It is creative, looks very professional, and fits in with the rest of the website.

Good Header: People.com has an amazing banner ad of the Apple iPod Touch. I love how it goes “outside the box” and uses both audio and visual to make this appealing. I want to buy an iPod touch just because this ad is so awesome!

Bad Header: Staying in the same genre of websites, Us Weekly’s site has such a plain looking banner ad on their website. It’s harder to even notice because it’s smaller and the lack of sound makes the ad less appealing to  me.

The flash header on the NBA store’s website, located on 5th Ave., is an example of a good flash header. The images are clear. The timing of the transitions are good. There’s also a pause button on the bottom right corner if your head starts to spin while looking at the images play itself over and over again. Also, you can choose to look through or stop looking at the pictures being presented in the flash header.

On the other hand, the header for NFL’s website, is just plain boring. There is movement, but just a few frames in the timeline. It’s stiff and doesn’t do much, except show the vibration symbols that come out slow. The site’s awesome to track scores, but the header’s very boring.