Flash has always had amazing capabilities to deliver interactive
video, audio, and animation in a relatively small download.
Its former weaknesses (not being installed with enough users,
modem users facing long waits to download graphic-intense splash
pages, search engines being unable to index Flash content) have
also become much less of a concern than they formerly were,
thanks to the fact that new browsers ship with Flash installed;
many users accessing the web via broadband, and search engine
spiders catching up to the technology and becoming able to read
text within a Flash movie.
So why would you possibly not want to use Flash in your website?
A site that's built entirely in Flash forces people to travel
through your site on your terms. While this may seem
like a great idea to you, your users are going to hate it. They
cannot use the back and forward buttons of their browsers, and
they cannot open links in new windows. Links don't change color
once they've been visited, as text links do, so they have to
rely on their memory to tell them what parts of the site they've
been to already. They can't copy or paste links into their bookmarks
-- in fact, trying to add a specific area of the site to the
bookmarks or favorites list will only result in the entire site
being added to the list. They can't use the Find or Search feature
in their browsers to quickly scan the page for their area of
interest. They cannot select, copy or paste text from a Flash
site into an email, or into a document that they may wish to
save. From a usability standpoint, this is awful. Web users'
attention spans are short, and if they get frustrated using
your site, they will leave.
If I go to a website and see that I'm given a choice of the
Flash version or the Non-Flash version (and all good webmasters
should do this -- it's a bad idea to force content on anyone)
I always choose the Non-Flash. Why? The Non-Flash will load
faster, not throw a bunch of animation at me, and I'll be able
to find what I want faster. When I do find it, I can bookmark
it and come back to it. You might think that as a web developer
I'd like to see the latest and greatest technology, and I do.
But more often than not, the sites that use Flash are using
it to show off, not to enhance their content in any way. Flash
tends to "wow" the people who have never seen it used,
but it quickly becomes old when you see it over and over.
Flash is small, but not that small. Flash certainly can deliver
video and audio in a smaller download than traditional media
formats, but file sizes still creep up quickly. Users on dial-up
connections (and there are still quite a few of them out there)
may not have the patience to load a 300K movie for each page.
They'll have to wait several minutes between each page change
before they can do anything... will they?
So when should Flash be used? Is there a good use for Flash
at all? Absolutely! An easy way to solve the navigation problems
with Flash is to offer your users an alternative way to browse
the site, via HTML text links or buttons. Our site is a good
example of this -- we have a Flash page header, but we offer
traditional linking throughout the site as well. Flash is also
excellent for creating movies, online games, and cartoons --
just take a look at Nickelodeon
or Disney.com
for examples.
I like creating Flash content, and I think it's a very versatile
medium. But I still stand by my feelings that it isn't a good
medium for designing entire sites. People are going
to tire of not being able to use the browser's forward and back
buttons, as well as not being able to bookmark areas of interest
to them. If you do create an entire site in Flash, give your
users a choice. Offer Flash and Non-Flash versions of the site.
Summary:
* Flash benefits: interactive video, audio, and animation
in a relatively small download.
* Flash drawbacks:
o forces users to navigate site on your terms, not theirs
o file sizes are larger than standard html
* If you use Flash, provide an non-Flash option if possible.
Webmaster's Corner is written biweekly by Jill
Cataldo, Senior Web Developer for NewRamp.com. She has been
working in web development since 1996. Articles are copyright
©2005 NewRamp and may not be reproduced without permission.
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