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(I will never rent, trade, or sell your information) * = required fieldOnce when I was at a business event I met a woman who, after she discovered I am a website developer, was very interested in the topic of how much it costs to create a Flash website. All I could say in general was that it would probably cost more than a similar site done using other more standard web technologies.
“But I want it to have that Flash look,” she said.
“You mean you are interested in animation?” I asked, trying to determine what the “Flash look” was exactly.
“Well, I mean, even the colors, they look so much more vibrant, don’t you think?” she replied.
It took me awhile to explain that Flash is just a technology – whether you use a jpeg or a Flash file for your logo, the screen it is being shown on is exactly the same. You can use all the same colors, and as long as you have a talented graphic artist, your site can look vibrant.
This is a common misconception about Flash websites – that you can only achieve those graphical effects using Flash. More and more, however, this just isn’t true. A skilled HTML/CSS developer can create a site almost identical to one created wholly in Flash – but with so many additional advantages.
You see, Flash is a great technology, but only if used appropriately. When used inappropriately, it will sacrifice most of the advantages of having a website. The most egregious use of Flash for a website is when the entire site is a single big flash file. You can spot these sites by the fact that they only have one page – usually just the homepage (www.mydomain.com), and no matter what you click on, the address never changes. Another way to spot one of these is that all the text in the site is built in as an image – you can’t highlight/copy/paste the text, etc.
The major disadvantages of doing your website like this:
Search Engines don’t see anything
Search engines cannot read anything but HTML files (and linked documents like PDF or Word docs). To a search engine, a Flash-only site looks like there is only a single page up at the domain, and the page doesn’t have anything on it. Search engines, for the most part, cannot read any of the “text” in a flash movie. It just looks like one big picture.
Search engines are important if you plan to get visitors to your site who have perhaps not yet met you, or been told your domain name. If people are searching for keywords related to what you are offering, they will never see your site.
People with visual impairments or people using other types of devices will have difficulties reading your site
Web browsers on a regular desktop computer are not the only way people access webpages. Many people surf using mobile phones and PDAs. They will have a hard time viewing a Flash-only site. Not to mention the “regular” site viewers who do not have Flash installed in their browser, for whatever reason.
Many people with visual impairments use special screen reader software to read webpages out-loud. This software will not be able to ready anything in your Flash file. Also, some people who CAN see, but not well, like to increase the font-size when viewing a website (Heck, I even do this to rest my eyes while reading longer articles online!) but they won’t be able to make your text larger. If you would like to know a bit more about accessibility issues related to your website, take a look: http://htmlhelp.com/design/accessibility.
You will have a very hard time updating content on your site
It will be difficult for your site to grow if you can’t easily change and add content. This is why I am such a major proponent of using a content management system (CMS). Though Flash-elements can be integrated with a CMS, if your entire site is a single flash-file, this is much more difficult to accomplish. With this type of site, any changes will need to be made to the Flash source file, which your Flash designer will have, but which does not generally get uploaded to the web server. After the changes are made to the source file, the designer creates a “compiled” version which is put up on the web server, but which cannot be altered in any way.
Also, by having such a fixed design, as most Flash sites do, though it looks great (like a magazine!) there isn’t much space to add longer content (which search engines love) or to add more pages (also loved by search engines – they prefer sites with a lot of stuff that keep growing). The design you have in Flash might inherently limit your future site content.
There are some appropriate uses for Flash:
But, you will often find that many of these things can be handled without Flash as well. Also, keep in mind your visitor’s experience on your site. As cool as a spinning logo might seem, it can be an irritating visual distraction to a visitor who is trying to focus on your actual site content.
I know this can seem like a very technical issue, but there is so much misunderstanding about Flash websites in the business community. There are so many people I have met who have gone with a Flash website for their business, spent thousands of dollars, and been extremely disappointed after the fact. You need to be educated about these issues when you meet with a website developer, especially if the developer is pushing you toward using Flash for your website.
If you are having a hard time deciding if Flash is a good idea for your site, or how to best integrate it to avoid its disadvantages, please take a look at the web development and consulting services I offer. I would be happy to make sure you get a site that delivers the results you are looking for.
