I'm actually ashamed of the way the discussion has progressed here. I'm a writer as well as a designer. It strikes me that much of the sentiment here has been defensive: "But you need the bells and whistles because otherwise people can't and won't engage with your content!"
I found it far easier to engage deeply with your content than I have with sites that employ parallax scrolling and complex visual trickery to tell a story. Does that mean I don't think those flashy sites have a place? I think they do. But I can only speak from my experience, as a reader and a user, and my experience is that I appreciate being able to engage with content deeply instead of having shiny toys thrown at me every so often to prevent me from clicking away.
It's not either-or, of course, and I don't think you're suggesting that every site on the internet needs to exist as black Times New Roman on a white background. There's no standard template for how to "correctly" communicate. We all enjoy a good spectacle every one in a while. But sometimes, we can also appreciate a compelling string of words on a plain page. I think that's all you're arguing, and I'm totally behind that.
I'm actually ashamed of the way the discussion has progressed here. I'm a writer as well as a designer. It strikes me that much of the sentiment here has been defensive: "But you need the bells and whistles because otherwise people can't and won't engage with your content!"
I found it far easier to engage deeply with your content than I have with sites that employ parallax scrolling and complex visual trickery to tell a story. Does that mean I don't think those flashy sites have a place? I think they do. But I can only speak from my experience, as a reader and a user, and my experience is that I appreciate being able to engage with content deeply instead of having shiny toys thrown at me every so often to prevent me from clicking away.
It's not either-or, of course, and I don't think you're suggesting that every site on the internet needs to exist as black Times New Roman on a white background. There's no standard template for how to "correctly" communicate. We all enjoy a good spectacle every one in a while. But sometimes, we can also appreciate a compelling string of words on a plain page. I think that's all you're arguing, and I'm totally behind that.