Put Function before Form

Don't let all the bells and whistles take priority over the purpose of the site. The visual aspect of the site should support the site's function, not detract from it. In the music industry, it is common to find music samples on web sites, but visitors should be given the option to turn off the music if it is detracting from their mission or slowing down the process.2

2 Or, better yet, make them turn on the music if they want to hear it. If they really want to hear the music, they'll be happy to click a button to play it. One of the problems with streaming music when a page loads is that, if the user is on dial-up or a low-speed DSL connection or any type of slow connection, loading and playing the stream is going to take away from the loading and operation of the visual aspects of the page and the user won't know why until the music starts playing, which may not be right away. They'll just bail out of the page before they even get to see all of it and never return.

Source: Adapted from Shelley Lowery.

Source: Adapted from Shelley Lowery.

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