Satisfying your Visitors' Natural Curiosity with Flash Flip Navigation

By: Flashloaded

If you have not heard of Flash flip navigation, consider what you do when given a leaflet, a flyer or other printed document. What is the one thing you do almost straight away? In almost all cases, it's flip it over to see what's on the other side. So why not introduce the idea of flip navigation to your website too?

As people living in the twenty first century we all know what it's like to be surrounded by media and information. Every day we are bombarded with it from all angles, and we have learned to accept this, and take it on board. We can't take in everything. If we tried, we'd simply get overloaded. Think about every day and just how many forms of advertising and information head your way.

From adverts printed on your serial box, leaflets through your door, advert sin the paper and information sent by letter. You receive texts and emails, see information on websites and as you walk down the street there are billboard posters, bus stop posters and information printed in the shop windows, not to mention the street signs and displays everywhere. The radio may be broadcasting, we see television screens telling us information and we are overwhelmed by information from so many angles.

At least, we would be overwhelmed if we actually took it all on board, but we don't. What we have all become very good at is filtering information, and taking on board at a glance what may be important and what may not be. We are able to tell almost straight away whether something is relevant, or worth the time to read, and if it isn't, we'll move on.

This is both good and bad news as far as website developers are concerned. Certainly web developers are competing with all other forms of media, but they do have some advantages. Newspapers will always be predominantly black and white and printed on paper, radio will always be simple auditory. But websites can change, evolve and take advantage of new methods and means to get messages across. One of those means may well be Flash flip navigation.

One of the methods we all have learned to use as far as filtering information is concerned is to get the feel of it, to understand the shape of the information. We're familiar with road signs, and will be able to tell at a glance whether it is relevant, largely by the shape and colour. If it's a red bordered triangle then we're likely to pay more attention that a plan black and white direction sign perhaps. A photograph or catchy headline in a newspaper or magazine is likely to get us to explore further. A leaflet we're handed may well have basic information on the front, a glossy picture or enticing offers, and what do we generally do next? We turn it over and have a look at the back, or the next page.

Websites can achieve this same opportunity using flip navigation, which effectively means developing a system integrated into the website that simulates the idea of flipping something over, or turning it round. In its simplest form this could be having a single information panel which advertises a product or feature, and when clicked, flips over in an animated way to reveal the back, or at least, give the impression of revealing the back. Obviously web pages don't have backs and fronts, but using Flash as a medium, a Flash flip navigation panel can create the impression, by replacing one bit of information with another through an animation sequence, that the content is being turned over.

This could be in a number of forms, such as turning the pages of a book. Think about the advantages of using a flip navigation interface for something like this. By having an image of a book with pages, the visitor can flip the pages over and browse through the information. This means that they are more likely to glance through the information on offer, get the feel and the shape of it, and decide whether it is relevant and worth investigating further. If you've done your work correctly, and attracted relevant visitors and have provided something worthwhile, then hopefully this will be successful.

Incorporating a flip navigation panel or feature into a website actually takes advantage of our modern ways of extrapolating and scanning information, coupled with our natural curiosity and need to browse briefly. A Flash flip navigation feature doesn't force people to move to a new web page or wait for content to load - it's instant, having pre loaded the whole of the contents in advance. It's like combining the advantages of glossy front pages, in the hand brochures and tactile books with the speed and accessibility of a website.

Article Source: http://www.articlepro.co.uk/international

For more information on how to use Flash to jazz up your website and provide your customers with a great website experience, check out www.flashloaded.com - You will not be disappointed.

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