Flash Website Design Pro

Flash based websites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Adobe compiles more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here's a simple breakdown.

The Good:

Interactivity

Flash's Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash animation to create interactve features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized website With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player installed.


Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to real "movie files" that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The Bad and the Really Ugly:

The Flash player People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your website. Fortunately, most computers, come with some version of Flash pre-installed. But which version? Your users will be annoyed if they have to download a newer version of Flash then they have installed just to view your content. You'll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn't have the right player or version installed. Most folks are scared of having to download anything when they view a web site and when prompted to download Flash, or a newer version of Flash, they may just leave.

Site search engine optimization

If your web site content is presented in Flash, search engines will not be able to index your content and your website pages will not show up well in the search engine listings. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in the search engine indexes.  You will have much less traffic heading to your site.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash website content compared to regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk losing visitors. Generally speaking you have about 5 - 10 seconds MAX to get your content up on the screen before your user will hit the back button.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Flash is great to use a a small component on a web page to grab the attention of the web surfer.  Otherwise, integrating a mixture of Flash, HTML and other scripting or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information. Use Flash sparingly. 

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Posted in: Software