I go to alot of corporate websites for my job and notice alot of them have Flash intros, iframes, and other fancy techniques worked into their sites to make them fun and engaging but at what point is it too much? Do people really care about the fancy Flash intros or animated dropdown menus?

I think the dividing line is when it starts to take 'away' from the site. Flashy designs are too much if it distracts from the content of the site. Intros are too much if people can't skip them if they want to or if it turns them off to eh point of not wanting to be on the site. Animated dropdowns, etc, become too much if it slows down the site or even if they've put so much time into them that they didn't bother making it easily navigatable. It's all fine and dandy to try to make things fun...but if it starts to take away from what the site is all about, then there's just no point.

For me I just go with simple and straightforward. Which can sometimes be a bad thing because then things can get boring. I don't see a problem with a few fun, fancy things but I agree with Arch. Too much "stuff" and I'm not interested anymore!

Sometimes I think people get caught up in making the fanciest website and add so much that it becomes very difficult for users still stuck with dial-up access. Businesses especially need to keep load times in mind or they will lose customers. I'm in a location that keeps me stuck on dial-up for now and I will close a site that takes forever to load. At least, offer an alternative for the low band users.

Any business website needs to be easy to navigate and easy to understand. Anything that is taking away from those objectives is really too much. Adding visual appeal and interest can be done without hurting but be careful. I think people using dial up need a way to bypass some of the fancy stuff so that they can actually use a site. I was stuck on dial up for a long time and there were sites that were impossible to navigate and didn't get my business for that reason alone.

I'm glad to hear I'm not alone. I was just at the website of a multi-million dollar brand and could not handle all the flash popups and such. I can't even imagine being on dial-up and couldn't believe that they would have such a fancy, intensive site that would clearly limit the people who could use it. I really like the fancy stuff myself, but having an older computer reminds me why it should be used with caution or lightly.

Oh, no...you're not alone.

If something's animated so that it reacts faster or makes the site easier to use, great. If something's animated to add a little zing, it should be just that: little. (Less is more.) If something's animated solely for the sake of using Flash and looking slick...put it on a site that's designed to let people sit and go "ooooooo, shiney".

I think a lot more of a business that provides a site that is functional, and that will function for almost all web users. Not everyone has a high speed connection, or high spec computer and I personally would not want to lose their business just because I was trying to show off.

This all depends on why the site is there and what is trying to be accomplished.

I've been in web design for for a little over a decade, and I HATE most animation, I hate flash intros, I generally hate flash entirely unless it is minimal and done well. Perhaps I just come from the old bandwidth-conscious school where any unneccesary clicking was anathema. I remember very well the flaming, spinning logos of the late 90s.. lol

That being said, I love AJAX/Web2.0 stuff provided it adds something valuable. I have no problem with drop down menus as long as they are done with DHTML not some stupid plugin (Sorry Adobe, I hate flash. It can be cool when done well, but is generally so unneccesary and annoying)

Clean, elegant, and without requiring plugins is the way to go.

depends on the type of visitors your loking to attact. Some aim at a market that is attracted to fancy & flashy and others do it to a minium, while others are about simple and functional.

I think good design mixes a bit of both. I like Flashy like the stuff found on 2Advanced but paired with clean, elegant JAX/Web2.0 stuff that is W3C compliate.

I guess you especially need to focus on your content.
If you provide good content about your core business, there is no problem with a flash site or whasoever. just don't let the flash be everything you have

I think that fancy can be too fancy if it is diffult for visitors to read the page or even make it load. I have high-speed and if a website takes a long time to load then I know that dial-up vistors are probably not going to wait for it to load.

I think that making your site too "fancy" can be a negative thing if it doesn't let visitors browse conveniently. For example, I hate when I have to sit through an intro that I've seen many times on end. I would like to have the option of skipping it.

Making sure that the page loads conveniently is important too, you don't want people getting bored of long load times and going somewhere else.

It is really a matter of preference but if it detracts from the purpose of the price or the product then you definitely want to follow the "KISS" method. You definitely want to catch someone's eye but you don't want to overpower them either. Finding the right balance is the key.

Chris