April 27, 2005

How to say "hi" in 15 different countries

The Business of Touch from Aquent uses Flash (sometimes effectively, and sometimes gratuitously) to demonstrate the cultural differences in business greetings (e.g. shaking hands) in 15 different countries. The use of Flash helps show the action (e.g. a bowing motion). In some cases, the design uses animation to distraction - in the case of the China example where colored patches move and shake - obscuring the action of the illustrated actors. Another drawback of using Flash is you can't link to an individual example (i.e. "page"). The content is pretty interesting, although they could've done a better job of citing sources or linking to additional information.

It's intended as a marketing piece to get you to hire Aquent designers...and should be considered from that standpoint.