What are banner ads?

A banner ad is an image shown on a webpage for advertising purposes.

Along with animation, contemporary ad banners often use simple forms of interaction as a lure, taking advantage of plug-ins such as Flash and Shockwave to create banner-based games.

Banner blindness

Banner blindness describes the condition of people ignoring webpage design elements that resemble advertising banners.

For example, a person may ignore blocks of content or images that are:

of a similar proportion to an advertising banner

are animated

overly-large

colourful

positioned on the webpage in a space commonly-used for advertising material (centre-top, far-right)

Related terms: above-the-fold, pop-up window