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The Death of the Flash Splash Screen

By: Daniel Szuc Posted: Feb 26, 2002


A splash screen is a front screen that appears on entry to a site. These are often coded using Flash.

For many people the reaction to a splash screen is similar to the reaction of David Jacques, a Customer Experience Consultant in Hong Kong - "For me, a Splash screen is a game: to find the skip button as fast as possible."

The following are some of the design problems to consider with Splash screens:

Home Page - Users expect to get to the home page as quickly as possible without unnecessary obstacle. Splash screens delay the ability to see the site structure, overall design and content and to get to an initial feeling of trust.

Skip button - How many people watch the complete flash introduction before hitting the SKIP button. David Jacques - "In a preliminary research we did some time ago on the reaction to Flash intros, over half the participants pressed the skip button within the first 6 seconds. That's only on the first visit. It would be reasonable to assume that on subsequent visits, the percentage of people who skip increases sharply."

Attention Management - people's attention is shrinking so any additional information they have to consume may get in the way of their tasks. (See Davenport and Beck "The Attention Economy - Understanding the New Currency of Business")

Additional Steps - Users have already navigated through levels of site information on sites prior to visiting your site. Why would they want to go through one more step to get to the information they require?

Value for time - Do the introductions offer any real value to the users for their time?

Design Issues
If you are considering using a splash screen, you should consider these questions:

- Who is your target audience?
- Does the splash flash add value to the user experience?
- Does the splash screen get in the way of users completing tasks?
- Does the splash screen offer any value to the user?
- How often is the Skip button pressed in an existing splash screen? If users are skipping your presentation, are you getting any value from having it?

Flash and to a degree flash introductions do have a role to play, but asking some basic questions before launching to the public can determine if there is a real need in the first place. No doubt there are many situations in which splash screens are useful. For example, online games may use splash screens to good effect when providing doorways to the next level. Splash screens may also entertain and inform while a user is waiting for another process to be completed.

Design Solutions
Given the problems with splash screens, you may want to consider the following options:

- Avoid unjustified or unnecessary splash screens
- Make the Skip button obvious
- The skip button should be available in HTML, not just as part of the Flash presentation. Some sites make the mistake of putting the skip button inside the Flash and users without Flash will not be able to "skip" to access the home page.
- Place the splash screen inside the site, so that the visitor's journey is not interrupted
- Test with representative users to see whether they find the splash screen useful, entertaining, or annoying
- Offer a splash screen or Flash presentation as a side dish, not as the main meal.

Useful References
- Flash 99% bad - www.useit.com
- Flash Tutorial - www.digital-web.com

Examples (if you don't have time you can always click on SKIP)
www.diethelmkeller.com
www.aaaa.com.hk
www.flightdirector.com.au
www.hydromajestic.com.au
www.coles.com

- Daniel Szuc
Usability Consultant

Thanks to Gerry Gaffney and David Jacques for review commentary.