Thursday, August 20, 2009

Things To Consider When Building Flash-Based Sites

By Ferdinand Emy

Flash-based sites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Macro media compiles more and more great features into Flash, we may only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here's a simple breakdown.

The good:

Interactivity

Flash's Action script opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have utilized Flash to create interactive characteristics ranging from very lively feedback forms to engaging Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will Regularly leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized site

With Flash, you don't have to worry as regards cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a sure CSS code displays diversely in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they'll Regularly appear as they're as long as the user has Flash Player installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to actual "movie files" that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The bad and the ugly:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they may view Flash movies, so by utilizing Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your site. You'll likewise have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn't have the player installed.

Site optimization

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines will not be able to index your content. Hence, you would not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site.

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 danger losing visitors.

The optimal way to go is to utilize Flash only when you absolutely require the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, utilise a mixture of Flash and HTML or employ pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical info.

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