Web Design Articles by Sky-Web

Web Tips - Do You Need Audio?

Sounds or Silence?

Some web sites feature sound files. We aren't referring to mp3 files to download, but sounds embedded in the web page. When first encountered these are usually thought of as a clever special effect. Wow! Trouble is when you go back to that page you hear the sound again. And again. And again. Soon you are reaching for the speaker's volume control and turning them down in desperation. But will you remember to turn the sound down next time you visit the page? Will you bother to visit it again? Imagine someone at work in a busy office visits the page - do they want to hear these sound effects? Does everyone else in the office want to hear them time after time? Usually the answer is no. So think very carefully about adding sound effects to a page, especially a page that will be visited many times. It will tend to drive away visitors.

Sky-Web can help you embed sound files in a web page if you really, really want to, but for the normal business web page we recommend against this. It is, however, more acceptable to do this if your site is about a band.