ChapterNINE.Adding Interactivity

Chapter NINE. Adding Interactivity

We adore clean-looking, well-organized Web sites that offer pertinent and timely information. We abhor gratuitous glitz used for no other reason than the designer felt like playing with cool software. That doesn't mean we are against interactivity on a Web site, though. Quite the contrarya bit of well thought-out interactivity can make the user's experience go from mundane to delightful.

In this chapter we take a look at various ways you can add interactivity to your Web site. We cover everything from rollovers and JavaScript Actions all the way to forms, QuickTime, Flash (SWF), and imagemaps. Just remember that interactivity used on a Web site should have a reason behind it. Simply sprinkling your page with flashing, flying, blinking goodies won't endear you to your audience. In fact, it may alienate them entirely. Use your judgment when adding interactivity. Ask yourself, "Does adding this animation/pop-up window/other-flashy-goodie make my visitor's experience more useful?" If the answer is no, or even maybe, then forget it. If the answer is yes, then GoLive's full collection of interactive tools is just what you need.