The Effect of Animated Banner Advertisements on a Visual Search Task

Though animated banners are the predominant form of advertising on the Web, much controversy surrounds their efficacy. Users and experts complain, often bitterly, about being distracted by animation and subjectively believe that their performance suffers when flashing objects are on the screen. A visual search experiment was designed to measure both subjective impression of workload and objective task performance in the presence of animated and static banners. Participants reported greater workload, stating that animation increased the frustration and mental demand of the search task. However, participants were not significantly slower or more error-prone in the presence of animated banners.