Comments on: 5 Reasons to Kill the Splash Page

By: When to use a splash (or screen) page on a web site – Structure and stability

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:52:59 +0000

[...] 5 Reasons to Kill the Splash Page [...]

By: imran

imran — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:16:36 +0000

wow tq for the advice,,

By: Devin

Devin — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:54:06 +0000

I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s good to find out early on that it isn’t a good match, and move onto projects you can fully invest in.

By: Depressed Developer

Depressed Developer — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:24:58 +0000

And I was sacked by a client recently for giving my say against a splash page. (The splash page just show his logo for a few seconds with no option to skip before redirecting to the main page)

And what a client it was, being a very good friend of mine in the past. Now–someone who hates me so much.

He would probably never realise how much it could hurt his business as he is quite a reputable print designer and thus is likely to still have a steady stream of business regardless of having a splash page anot.

I felt kind of sad, on the thought that he might never realise it & continue to think that I’m a fool.

Wish he could see your article one day, though with his pride, I guess he will think he is the exception.

By: Leslie Straw

Leslie Straw — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:24:45 +0000

Virtually no one asks us for splash pages anymore, and if they do the searchability, iphone, and ipad issues changes their mind right away. That said, I have two recent clients who have a case.

One client’s end products are themselves very flashy—gaming, interactive graphics for trade shows, etc. Their competitors all have elaborate mostly annoying intros and sites. One actually was pretty impressive, but I can’t remember their name and it’s in Flash and not coming up on Google so I can’t send the link :) . We’ll pitch them on something more functional and cleaner on the off chance, but we’ll lose because this client wants “sexy” and who knows, that might be right for their business model.

The second is almost the opposite case, an old school interior designer with high end clients. He doesn’t want a flash-type intro, but he does want the home page to have a visual impact that excludes any text or menu. We discussed the trade-offs, but in his case I came to agree. He is already pretty well know and the site is his name, he has lots of potential links to him and a strong facebook presence. We came up with something subtle but effective that stands out against the usual suspects. I will monitor the site though, and if people are not clicking through we will make some changes.

By: Bill Scheider

Bill Scheider — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:30:39 +0000

Hi Devin
Yeah, I come across this with clients lots, too. In fact, I just recently launched a client’s site with a splash page. It’s tough when you’re doing something you know isn’t going to work out too well for them! But the guy was a photographer and wanted his picture up front; not even his site name!

But I’ve also used some of the arguments you’ve presented here and had clients change their minds. And there’s always a second chance when they return in a few months wondering why they don’t show up in search results :)

Thanks for the post.

By: Unnamed

Unnamed — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 02:55:08 +0000

Hi, I agree with you too, however I recently met a client (who is a print designer) who just insist on a splash page no matter how hard I tried to convince him with reasons & with research reports.

He often quotes articles from the web supporting the use of splash pages too & call me unknowledgable. In the end I have to gave in & get looked down by him at the same time. He hardly ever trusted my design decisions, given that I’m an IT graduate while he graduated from school as a designer. So naturally he thinks I know nothing about design & feels he need to educate me.

Those websites that write to support splash pages are getting on my nerves sometimes.

By: Devin

Devin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:20:58 +0000

I think it’s always okay to go back to a client and explain why you want to do something different than what was agreed on prior, as long as you give good explanations for why. If they still want it, well, at least you tried.

By: Konrad Walsh

Konrad Walsh — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:21:57 +0000

Damn ,
I agree with all these points but I have agreed with a client to do the splash page.. and I hate it.. but they want it… now I am trying to figure out a way to show i am not trying to go back on my word

thanks for your article
konrad

By: blis

blis — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:34:28 +0000

The customer is always right.. specially when it’s your father in law :)