speakerA word about music or other sounds autoplaying on a website… Don’t! This was all the rage a while back and there are still sites doing it. Autoplaying music is less common today, but replacing it has been video and virtual assistants suddenly talking to you. While it can certainly get a visitor’s attention, it may very well irritate him in the process. Maybe he was streaming an online radio station while he surfed the web and you just interrupted his favorite song. Or in the case of autoplaying music, perhaps your visitors don’t share your taste in tunes.

What’s worse, I’ve been to sites doing this, but not offering an obvious way to turn it off. Very frustrating and can certainly lead to people leaving your site in droves.

If you really want to incorporate this type of gimmick (yes, that’s what it is) on your site, at least do visitors the courtesy of setting it to “off” with a clear way for them to turn it “on” if they’re interested in it.