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I have a book featured on my website front page and want to arrange links in the pages, so that when a user clicks on the links, they will hear the sound of a turning page, and see a page turn.

Is that possible? I am also a Adobe CC subscriber and am thinking I can use a combo of Muse, Flash, Dreamweaver, and PS to make this happen. Does that sound right or am I complicating matters? Should I just add sound effect and let the link take them to the next page?

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    While I'm sure it's possible, unexpected sound and Flash are two of the most unpopular things you can add to a web page... For sound, if your user is in a room with a sleeping baby/partner, or a quiet public building like a college library or cafe, or an office, the moment they hear sound they weren't expecting from your page they'll close the tab and never come back. For Flash, no modern mobile/tablet browsers support flash well, and even many desktop browsers give a "Do you want to activate this plugin" warning. Don't do it! Or at least, have it off by default and let people turn it on. – user56reinstatemonica8 Feb 19 '15 at 19:28
  • HMM, ok. what would you recommend? I would like it so clicking the link gives the appearance of turning the page, 'entering the book' so to speak. – 11Catwoman Feb 19 '15 at 19:32
  • It's possible. It's highly recommended that you don't, however. It's not a real book. So no need to belabor the point. And unless you pull off the effect with a high degree of polish, it will likely interfere with the overall user experience rather than enhance. – DA01 Feb 19 '15 at 20:19
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This is definitely possible. Here are a few examples of the page flipping effect: One (you can also find the source code separately), two, three, four. You'd have to put in your own pages and attach the sound using JavaScript, but it's definitely possible.

The better question is: "Is it worth it?" which I would argue is, in almost all cases, a resounding no.

It simply is not that usable. Google's 20thingsIlearned (the first example I gave) is really cool and well done, but it takes a while to read all of the content, is pretty heavy on performance, and isn't responsive. Implementing this would remove two of the unique characteristics of the web - fitting content to the device and working across all platforms.

It also takes a good bit of work. Even going off of these examples and using their setup it'll likely still take you longer than you want to spend on it. They will only be effective if they're very very high quality, which even most of the examples I shared do not do. That's nothing against your skill, just statement of fact.

What I recommend instead is to create an awesome experience in other ways. Focus on the design and user flow and make sure you're conveying exactly the message you want to through each little detail. Find other ways to have interaction between users and your site, especially looking at how other people do it. UserFlowPatterns is a great place to get some ideas.

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  • Thanks Zach! I will take all your insight into consideration. And double thanks for the links!! I'm a trained Art Historian jumping into the pool of web design head first, lol. – 11Catwoman Feb 19 '15 at 19:58

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