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When to Use Flash, And When to Avoid It  Flash is a vector animation software (it creates images using mathematic equations), originally designed to create animations for display on web pages. Vector graphics are ideal for the web because they are so lightweight. Flash can combine motion and sound, which makes it unique from javascript or animated gif motions.When considering Flash for a Web site, there are reasons on both sides as to whether tap into this technology or not. While flash appears to be everywhere, not every available interactive tool needs to be used in every application. Ask these questions before making a decision: 1. Will the Flash help me communicate with my audience? 2. Will my audience have the necessary program plug-in? (Estimates are that 15% of users do not have the program necessary to view Flash items.) 3. Will your audience be willing to wait while the Flash loads? 4. Is the Flash piece accomplishing something that plain HTML could do instead? 5. Will I still have good exposure on the search engines if I use Flash? In addition to the answers to these questions, other factors should impact whether Flash is used on a web site, including WHERE it is used. Many people feel it necessary to include a Flash-based introduction, forcing their visitors to wait through the animation, which provides no pertinent information, just a movie, before going where they had originally wanted to go. Hopefully, a site which uses a flash introduction also makes use of a "skip" button so impatient visitors will have the option to continue on, instead of exercising their right to leave the site. It is important to also be aware about the Flash development time. The more complex, which are more elements, the longer it will take to build a Flash movie, whether it be a site introduction, a descriptive animation block within the pages of the web site, animated and/or sound-enhanced navigations, etc. Including Flash elements will have some influence on the way your site is "seen" and indexed by the search engines. The problem of Flash Search Engine Optimization is a very serious matter in terms of conversion and web site profitability. Optimizing Flash for the search engines is not an easy task. Even so, most search engines don't like and won't index Flash - not all the search engines can crawl and index the content of Flash, and if they do, it's not free of errors. They won't be able to direct the visitors to the proper page. The effort that must be done and the amount of energy that must be spent on SEO for Flash are far greater than for the optimization of a HTML site, another cost fact of which to be aware. The use of Flash technology also crosses into a gray are with regard to "property rights." Many Flash developers refuse to relinquish the original file, forcing site owners to go back to them for any changes. If for some reason the developer "disappears," the site owner will be forced to have another developer recreate the entire piece since it is impossible to edit the Flash piece that is actually sitting on the web site. So, once all the pros and cons are listed, the question of when to use Flash and when to avoid it still remains. In general, we would avoid flash introductions (unless there is a skip option within it and the client doesn't mind spending the money on a flash piece that they know most visitors will skip), avoid web sites made entirely from flash, and avoid Flash pieces that contain information that might need to be changed with any frequency. We recommend using Flash to highlight major points about your organization or business in a dynamic manner or for navigations when the client wants sounds (clicks, etc.) very badly. |
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