I cut an animation from a template last week that I was proud of.

A hero headline that assembled letter by letter on load. It looked great in my demo. Then I tested it the way a buyer would: on a mid-range Android, on a slow connection, with a real headline twice as long as my placeholder.

It stuttered, and it delayed the one thing a visitor came for, the message. A nice effect that gets in the way of reading is not a nice effect.

I replaced it with a simple fade and rise on the whole headline. Faster, calmer, and it holds up no matter how long the copy runs.

Restraint is a feature in a template someone else has to live with. What is an effect you have talked yourself out of shipping?

I cut an animation from a template last week that I was proud of.

A hero headline that assembled letter by letter on load. It looked great in my demo. Then I tested it the way a buyer would: on a mid-range Android, on a slow connection, with a real headline twice as long as my placeholder.

It stuttered, and it delayed the one thing a visitor came for, the message. A nice effect that gets in the way of reading is not a nice effect.

I replaced it with a simple fade and rise on the whole headline. Faster, calmer, and it holds up no matter how long the copy runs.

Restraint is a feature in a template someone else has to live with. What is an effect you have talked yourself out of shipping?