Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

3. is a great point!

I don`t know if anybody else does this, but when I go to a website and the first thing I see is a Flash "loading intro" message, I will immediately leave the site and go somewhere else. 

If you do chose to have a Flash movie intro on your site,  a very obvious skip intro link is absolutely necessary. 

Dking actually this is true with older versions of flash, the new one is MUCH better. SE do index the copy now and yes your right screen readers have a hard time with flash, still. One major improvement was the back button, before older versions of flash you couldn`t use the back button to go back you were forced to use the movies nnavigation only, now that sucked. To your 2nd point High relevant information shouldn`t be put in flash because that`s not what flash is intended for, its the designers that misuse it, Flash was designed to enhance the page and give life to static mundane web pages. To your 3rd point, Having even images load in flash allows the content it load quicker, not slower. Sure the image might load slower, but as a developer I can now stream even graphics. Plus flash has great compression allowing me to knock down K size even more. So for low connection speeds this can actually be a benefit. As for strictly flash elements those are vector based and extremely low K. Animations aren`t heavy on download its more about the images used to make the movie, see flash works by sending coordinates to your player and the player renders it, very low K. Unlike an animated gif that sends a series of images to make it animate. To your 4th point, unless your using functionality that requires the latest flash player, as a developer you should drop it down to the lowest player available to you. Like Flash 4 for simple movies, that means people who are on Ie5 & up, Netscape 6 & up, and Firefox will have that player.

I do totally agree that flash should be used when appropriate, misuse of flash can cause visitors running, however with the correct implementation your site can soar. Like Oleg said a flash intro is a HUGE NO NO! But a tutorial is perfect use of flash as well as video.

For me I think the worst part of using flash isn`t what you posted, for me its that usually those files are hard to update, and for the common internet person they`ll have to pay a pretty penny to update it all the time, not very cost effective.

Either way it`s important our users understand the benefits and drawbacks of using flash. Good post.

Well the use of flash has increased over the years and some big name brands have all flash websites. If and how you use flash in your website can  certainly impact your viewers/audience. So, you need to understand your target audience before deciding to use flash and determining how to use it.

Here are some points about using flash in your website. Your website is for your viewer.

~Roland

Thanks for that information tikki50.

I just learned something about Flash I didn`t know

And you`re right about Flash files being hard to update. I had forgotten all about that one.

I think I`ll add that as reason #5.

Thanks again, tikki50.

Dale King

I agree. With some people having a flash site is almost like an obsession. They feel like they just have to have it.

Dale King

I never understood the obsession with Flash either. Are moving images on a website really that cool?  Are they even necessary?

Most things that can be accomplished with Flash can be done just as well in HTML, and will result in a more user-friendly experienc.