But file size issue is not so obvious nowadays. I feel the situation is similar to game industry. Nowadays games are designed for future computers. Games like crysis, bioshock ect, I can’t play them in the highest quality with my newly upgraded computer. What game developers are doing now has a bit sense. We shouldn’t get too restricted too by technologies. We know internet and processors are definitely getting faster so we can build something for the high end people first and slowly (maybe pretty soon) most of the rest will be able use it too.

But again, there should be a balance between the heavy effects and the rate of reaching your target audience. It’s hard to reach the balance and sometimes it’s decided by the client.

As my conclusion, Get the Glass is the site of the year + choice of people! What can I say?

One element of this topic that rarely gets discussed is file size. I was curious to see the “get the glass” site that made your jaw drop, but it took too long to load and I abandoned it. And I’m on a decently fast DSL connection.

Seems like an equally (or more) effective site could have been produced with less video and whiz-bang to reduce file size and make the site quicker to load (and therefore get to more eyeballs, faster). 2¢

And I agree about our self-congratulating design field possibly losing site of the end user. To add to the mix, often clients want “bigger, faster, more” and on the web that means Flash, video, etc and lots of boring loading sequences.

It’s milk, the game was riddled with references to how milk can make you healthier.

Most product orientated websites, ones that don’t rely on online sales in any way, are mainly just online commercials.

And I disagree that flash sites are mostly visited only be flash designers/developers. We notice it al ot more of course, becaue that’s our world, and it’s going to get passed around in our circle a lot more. But when huge corporations (soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, movies, etc) are all using flash on their web sites, I hardly think all their visitors are just flash developers.