Morrison : Diverting side-shows

A staged trail-in detracts from the main film.

The Site

Morrison, a UK buildings services provider, has an elaborate animated set up for its many introductory videos.

Morrison uses video introductions on its home page and the main section landing pages on its site. These run in a large panel immediately below the main horizontal title and navigation bar but do not load instantly when a page is opened. Instead, a smaller viewing screen is delivered into the panel by a Morrison operative (in one case, on a flatbed trolley), and manoeuvred into position.

Once in place, the viewing screen fills with the opening frame and can then be navigated with standard controls. At the same time, however, another company employee enters the larger panel and attends to the edge of the screen; for example, measuring it up (People section) or sanding it (Customers). Their activity stops only when the film is started, though they remain frozen and in view for the duration of the screening.

The Takeaway

Morrison has set out its site to be approachable to a general audience to the extent that its polished look and tinted graphics give it a contemporary consumerist/networking feel far removed from that of most corporate sites. The extensive use of video sits comfortably within the strategy, but the vaudevillian style of presentation is a flourish too far in terms of delivering the core content represented in the videos.

The effect of having the ‘rude mechanicals’ attending to the viewing screen must have looked good on the storyboard – it derives from and reinforces what the company does. So far so appropriate, but the downside is a serious degree of distraction. First, viewers have to wait for the screen to appear and be settled into position; then, they are offered a literal side-show that doesn’t quit the stage even when the main feature is running. What could pass as a tolerable warm up when first encountered quickly becomes more of a drag, if not an outright irritant, with successive screenings.

First published on 12 January, 2010