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When And Where To Use Flash |
By:
Dustin Dickens |
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When and Where to use Flash
by Dustin Dickens
Flash animations can be some of the coolest things on the Internet. They can also bog down your visitor's system resources and keep them waiting far too long. A good Flash designer knows how to keep load times down and the drain on the visitor's computer resources to a minimum.
Unless you have a heavily art based website, or have a need to be perceived as being on the bleeding edge of technology, an all Flash website is not a smart move. They make it nearly impossible for search engines to index your website's content, and often prove nearly impossible for anyone other than the original designer to make even the most basic changes. stay away from this obvious pitfall.
Using chunks of Flash embedded in standard HTML is almost always the way to go. This allows for a website that is easy for the search engine spiders to index, yet still allows almost the same design functionality of an all Flash site.
IE now displays a security message: click to activate and use this control, whenever a user hovers over a Flash movie. This has only recently become a problem. I can't tell you how many websites that I visit suffering from this problem. To get rid of this annoying message you need to use a little piece JavaScript. See the end of this article for a link to download this fix.
Web animation of any kind should be used sparingly. There is a higher tolerance for animation on entertainment and pop culture websites, and less for corporate and resources sites. The golden rule here is nearly always going to be less is better than more. Don't distract or annoy your visitor. If you need to get their attention, try a better static design first.
The speed and smoothness of a Flash animation can make a huge difference in whether it is perceived as distracting or as attractively informative. Fast jerky animations definitely catch your attention, but then tend to immediately put the viewer off, becoming distracting and annoying. If a Flash movie is smooth and can be running in the background while a visitor is looking at another element on the page without being distracted, then you have hit the mark.
Staying at least two release versions behind the bleeding edge is always a smart way to go. The Flash Player is now in its 9th full version, and definitely won't stop there. Macromedia, now owned by Adobe, is constantly adding new features to the Flash Player to enhance the capabilities and fix known bugs. There is about a years lag time before the latest Flash Player is on at least 80% of the systems browsing the web. To make sure that your visitors don't have to download the latest Flash Player to view your Flash movie, make sure you only use features that have been out for at least a year. Admittedly having to download the latest player isn't the worst thing in the world, but why make your visitor go through even a little bit of a hassle when it isn't necessary?
Have quality flash movies and videos. If I do have to wait a few seconds to see a Flash movie, I want it to be worth the wait. This almost always means hiring a professional flash designer. Flash is a very complicated program with a very steep learning curve. Don't waste your time beating your head against the wall. Focus on your core business and let a professional handle this part.
Get Dustin's other stuff on good Flash design and get the JavaScript fix and installation instructions for that pesky IE pop up message: click to activate and use this control You are welcome to reprint this article - but get your own unique content version here.
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article55345.html |
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