When to Use
Flash on Websites
Website Design Tips
Website
Design Services
The latest rage in website design
is using Flash, which is a vector based graphic presentation
that can present things in a continuous movie format.
It can include sound as well as interactivity. This
can present a richer experience for your visitor.
Flash movies can be made to load faster than other scripting
like JavaScript and other programs, but most designers
have taken the ‘look at what I can do’ approach
in their website design and overload the presentation.
There are several considerations before using Flash
in your website design. The first consideration is whether
or not to give the visitor a way to skip the Flash presentation.
If you come back to a site, and you’ve already
seen the presentation, you should have a way to skip
it. Especially if it is long. In most cases, I skip
the presentation altogether, and I’m not sure if
it’s because most of the Flash I’ve seen is
designer grandstanding or that I am looking for information
and not a show. So do your visitors a favor and build
in a skip button.
Flash is not search engine friendly at all. When your
site's first page is a Flash presentation, you can be
assured that no search engine will index your site.
One solution is to submit the subdirectory pages and
not the homepage. Another solution is to embed the Flash
into your homepage so there are links and text for the
search engines.
You also should be aware about the Flash development
time. The more complex, which are more elements, the
longer it will take to build the Flash movie. My suggestion
is to develop your HTML site and get it up on line,
then work on the Flash and add it later.
You really don’t have to worry about browser issues,
as Flash works in just about every browser. It doesn’t
work in browsers as old as Netscape 4.7, but it does
in most all new browsers.
Another great thing about Flash is you can create awesome
presentations that can keep a visitor interested and
at your site longer. It’s a great way to present
complex ideas because you can use an audio track with
graphics to get your point across quickly. Just like
you would send out a VHS about your products, you can
do it in Flash without the postage. If you want to see
some samples of Flash go to Macromedia’s site:
macromedia.
If you need a quality website designed
by a team of professionals, please call us at 888-324-4091.
We can get you a FREE quote and take your business to
the next level.
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