How is an autoplay video like an Airbus?

Let me start off by saying that I've never flown an Airbus. My dad, though, is a retired Airbus captain, and I remember listening to him complain when he switched from the Boeing 747 to the A320.

What sticks out most in my mind is his description of what he was thinking as he went through training: "What's it doing? Why's it doing that? How do I make it stop?"

Now, I'm not here to jump into the unwinnable "Airbus vs. Boeing" debate. (But do feel free to talk amongst yourselves.)

Instead, I'd like to show you how having an autoplay video on your website is a bit like flying an Airbus . . . and why while one may be a fine experience, the other definitely isn't.

Boeing vs. Airbus: What exactly does this have to do with autoplay videos?

What most pilots know that most non-pilots don't is that there's a fundamental philosophical difference between Boeing and Airbus:

Boeing believes that the pilots should have the final say in what the airplane is allowed to do. (Or at least it used to.)

Airbus, on the other hand, thinks that a computer makes better decisions about how to handle the aircraft.

What it seems to come down to is that in an Airbus, the computers are ultimately in control, while in a Boeing, the pilots are ultimately in control.

That same analogy can be applied to videos on your airport's website. Who's in control of when — or whether — they play? Your site or your visitors?

When people come to your website and you have an autoplay video front and center, they're probably going to be thinking pretty much what my dad was thinking during his Airbus training.

"What's it doing? Why's it doing that?" And most importantly, "How do I make it stop?"

So just in case your website is guilty of wresting control from your visitors, I've made my own list of reasons why you don't want autoplay videos.

My top 4 reasons to avoid autoplay:

?No. 4: It's rude.

Even though most mobile devices stop videos from autoplaying, those of us on laptops or desktops aren't that lucky.

If you simply must have a video on your site's home page, put it below the fold and let visitors decide if they want to use up their bandwidth to see it.

No. 3: It makes your website load r...e...a...l...l...y?s...l...o...w...l...y.

With the average visitor's page-loading patience now hovering somewhere around a couple of seconds, you're more likely to lose viewers than you are to wow them with your incredible video offerings.

Besides that, if you're looking to improve your site's SEO, search engines like text better than they like videos.

No. 2: It might induce mind muddle.

Is a fancy video really what your site's visitors want to see? Probably not.

They came to your airport's website to find out something specific — something like flight schedules, parking or bus information, or if there's a courtesy car for pilots.

People are busy, and they want to find what they want to know quickly and easily.

Don't waste their time with self-playing videos — instead, work on your navigation links to help them get where they want to go fast.

Krug's Rule for website design: don't make your visitors think.

(Check out Steve Krug's book Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common-Sense Approach to Web Usability if you're not sure what I mean by this.)

If people are trying frantically to figure out how to turn off your dratted video, they're not able to think about what they got on your website to do in the first place.

And the Number 1 Reason why your videos shouldn't play on their own:

It's really, really — and I mean REALLY?— annoying.

What's the fastest way to make me leave your website and find what I want to know somewhere else?

Start off my visit to your home page with an in-my-face video about how amazing your airport is.

Just as a lot of pilots would rather have the final say on what their airplane does, a lot of your site visitors would also rather have the final say on whether or not to watch your videos.

Think of your site's home page as the magic portal into the rest of your website, and from there to your airport itself.

If you aggravate your site's visitors from the first second the webpage starts to load, you've lost any initial goodwill toward your airport that they might have been feeling.

And with the state of air travel these days, you need all the goodwill you can get.

Okay, time for that debate. Are you an Airbus fan, or do you fall squarely into the "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going" camp?