href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2529#">Some words of wisdom on animated "splash" intro pages for websites, from Jared Spool, of Macromedia' User Interface Engineering group. Yes, this article is old enough to mention Macromedia, not Adobe; and yet some people still haven't got the message:
Jared said, "When we have clients who are thinking about Flash
splash pages, we tell them to go to their local supermarket and
bring a mime with them. Have the mime stand in front of the
supermarket, and, as each customer tries to enter, do a little
show that lasts two minutes, welcoming them to the supermarket
and trying to explain the bread is on aisle six and milk is on
sale today."Then stand back and count how many people watch the mime, how
many people get past the mime as quickly as possible, and how
many people punch the mime out."That should give you a good idea as to how well their splash
page will be received. That's the crux of it."