> From: Mr C A Rusbridge <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Animated gifs
> To: [log in to unmask] (eLib list)
> Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 13:36:00 +0100 (BST)
> Reply-to: Mr C A Rusbridge <[log in to unmask]>
> A message from Rachel Heery of UKOLN on another thread mentions the URL
> for DESIRE:
>
> > DESIRE:http://www.surfnet.nl/surfnet/projects/desire/
>
> I have looked at this web page, and their logo is (I think) an animated
> gif (http://www.surfnet.nl/surfnet/projects/desire/desirelogo.gif). This
> thing has been set to loop back, re-loading itself when it reaches the
> end of an animated sequence. I presume it's not re-loading a network copy
> each time, but the damn thing is still at it, thrashing my hard disk in
> the background even as I write this.
>
> Am I alone in finding this an objectionable, even un-acceptable bit of
> web practice?
> Chris Rusbridge
I think it may be regarding as undesirable on the grounds of:
1 wasting network resources
2 wasting your local computing resources
3 ergonomics
4 being proprietary
The use of an animated GIF to provide animation does not waste
significant network resources. It is true that it makes use of swap
space on your hard disk - if you press the STop button it will stop
the animation. Animating GIFs are part of the GIF specification.
They were first implemented by Netscape, but now other browsers also
support them. My criticism of anim,ated GIFs is point 3, erginmics.
Jacob Neilson (?) a Sun user interface design, author of Sun's home
page and the prize-winning tutors at the WWW 96 conference is very
much against animation on Web pages because it can be so distracting.
If you are trying to read text on a page your eye is continually
being drawn towards the animation, which slows down your reading
speed.
I would regard it as undesirable, but not un-acceptable, in many
cases, although it may be fine if the page is intended as a user
interface rather than providig information.
Brian
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Brian Kelly
Netskills - see http://www.netskills.ac.uk/
Computing Service
University of Newcastle
Newcastle-upon-Tyne [log in to unmask]
NE1 7RU 0191 222 5002
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