Central Groove’s The Good and Bad of Flash-based websites
Pros and Cons of Flash-based Web Sites brought to you by Central Groove a Web Design Plymouth company.
Flash-based Sites have been a craze since the Last few years, and as Macromedia puts together more and more great features into Flash, we can only forecast there will be more and more flash Sites around the Internet. However, Flash based Web Sites have been challenged to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here’s a simple breakdown.
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The good:
Interactivity
Flash’s Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to bring into being interactve features ranging from very lively feedback forms to good looking Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.
A standardized site
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 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 numerous features to convey a idea in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based as opposed to real “movie files” that are raster based and hence much bigger in size.
The bad and the ugly:
The Flash player
People have to download the Flash player beforehand before they can see 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 a site. You’ll also have to put in further work in redirecting the user to the Flash download webpage if he or she doesn’t have the player installed.
Site optimisation
If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn’t be able to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site. For website optimisation contact a Web Designer in Plymouth
Loading time
Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash 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.
The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information.
