The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Flash Web Design

Executive summary about flash web design by Scot Crone

The Good:

Flash means a more interactive experience…

Flash’s ability to involve the web user opens up an array of exciting possibilities for web developers. For many years now web programmers and website designers have used Flash to create interactive features… these featured have ranged from engaging feedback forms to enthralling Flash based interactive movies and games.

No cross browser compatibility worries…

With Flash, cross browser compatibility issues are a distant CSS coding memory. After positioning your site elements in Flash, they should always stay exactly where you positioned them and look the same in every browser so long as the user has installed the latest version of Flash Player.

Communicate with better expression via flash animation…

With Flash, you can make use of animation features to get your message across in a more attractive and more efficient way. Because Flash is vector based (with smaller file sizes) it is considered to be a more lightweight option for animation versus real movie files which are raster based and are much larger in file size.

The Bad and the ugly:

Adobe® Flash Player Plug-in is required to view Flash content…

Not everyone is actively willing to download the Flash player just to view your Flash website or Flash based content. You may also have to put in a link to the Get Flash’ plug-in page if the user does not have the Flash player installed to give users the option to go to the download page.

Search engine optimization (SEO) concerns…

If you present your website’s text in Flash, some search engines may not be able to read it and may be unable to index your content. Apparently Google and others can now read some Flash based text content but do you really want to make it harder for them to do so? If you want to rank well in search engines Flash may not be the best way to go as ultimately there could be less traffic coming to your website.

Slow load times…

Web users have to wait longer for Flash content to load compared to regular text and images, this could potentially cause some visitors to lose their patience and lead to them hitting their browser’s back button.

To conclude…

Use Flash only when absolutely necessary… for example, when you need more interactivity and more active animation. A more balanced approach would be to use a blend of Flash and HTML or simply HTML if your site is only required to present simple graphical and textual information.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Flash Web Design

Summary about flash web design by Vijayanand Yadla

Points to be considered when planning a Flash based web site:

1. Purpose of the web site: If the primary purpose of the web site is to offer artistic or visual effects to the visitors (such as a business that is primarily a Design/Arts company, with visitors coming to the web site on some reference other than search engines) then Flash is recommended.

2. If you are developing a web site for getting more potential customers using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, then it is recommended to limit Flash only to certain portions of the web site or not to use at all.

3. Flash is not considered to be search engine friendly. Therefore, a Flash-based web site may not rank well in the search engine. It is important to know that search engines like simple and quick to follow web pages, and not a complex and difficult to navigate web site.

4. Keep in mind that most visitors spend less than 30 seconds on a web site. You need to offer the visitor what he/she is looking for in the shortest possible time (A good navigation system, and few number of clicks to reach the intended product or service). This is possible using a dynamic web page.

5. A Flash movie becomes obsolete after a few months time. It is necessary to update a Flash web site regularly. It is more expensive and time consuming to update and maintain a Flash web site than a traditional web site

The compelling reason to go for a web site developed without Flash is to get more visibility on the Web. On the other side, if it is very important to impress the web site visitor with a visual presentation, use of Flash is inevitable.

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