"Is FLASH Appropriate in
a Business Web Site?
by: David West"
The short answer is maybe. The long answer is that the question
might be better asked, “Is a 100% FLASH web site appropriate
in business?.” The answer to this question, in my humble
opinion is, absolutely not. In fact, we have had several
clients come to us this year who have 100% Flash web sites
that are going to completely remake their web sites because
they simply do not work for them. They are having issues
with search engines and with clients who can't see their
web sites.
Of course, they do work in terms of visuals. If you visit
a Flash web site you will see it. Just because a visitor
can see the web site doesn't automatically mean that the
web site is working for your business.
What is Flash?
Flash is technology developed by Macromedia, a leader in
web development tools. Flash movies are a compilation of
many images, elements and text that is then compiled into
a nice, tight little digital file that then gets put on the
internet. Some designers build entire web sites using this
technology. Graphic designers quite like the technology because
it gives them a great opportunity to show how talented they
are by developing interactive, moving, and quite honestly
some very entertaining web sites. Remember though that the
purpose for your business web site is to communicate with
your existing and prospective clients, not to show everyone
what a talented designer you hired.
What is Flash Good For?
Flash is great as an add-on element for some graphic components
of a business web site. Recently the ability for web masters
to compile digital audio and video into flash movies has
been simplified and using flash to stream a video is a great
example of a perfect use for Flash in a business web site.
Another example of where Flash is well used and well received
is on web sites that are about presentation and not information.
For example a rock band, kids web sites with little games,
a photo gallery, a movie clip are all places where Flash
is particularly well suited.
Does Flash have a place on the internet? Absolutely it does,
but as a web site purchaser though, you have to ask yourself
the question, “does Flash have a place on my business web
site?”
Can Everyone See Flash
The short answer is no. Although widely available and a
component of most web browsers when they are installed, not
everyone has flash installed with their web browser. If a
visitor who does not have a flash plug-in on their PC visits
a site that requires the Flash plug-in, their web browser
will prompt them to install it. PC and web savvy visitors
will likely go ahead and do it, but some users (like my mother)
panic if a pop-up window asks a question and they walk away,
or surf away, thinking they just infected their PC with the
latest doomsday virus. All of that said, a large percentage
of people can see Flash without too much anxiety.
Things to Consider
The Intro Flash Splash
Flash is commonly used for “splash” pages or “entry pages” into
web sites. We have all seen them, the animated movie or commercial
that leads us into a more traditional marketing web site.
Have you ever wondered why the Flash designer almost always
places a “skip intro” link on this page? I believe it's because
they know that if they don't allow people to skip the Flash
splash screen that they are going to lose the visitor. Remember
that most internet surfers are impatient and they are usually
looking for information, not another commercial. Get people
to your main web page and do it fast.
The trend of using ‘splash' pages has declined in the past
couple of years as the internet has matured. It is my belief,
and widely shared, that if your web site is about good information,
then an entry screen is just a road block to your visitors.
The Search Engine
Search engines send out automated robots called “spiders” that
crawl through the internet and create massive databases of
web pages. People then search for web pages based on key
words that are embedded in to the web page in hidden tags
as well as in the text that is on the web page itself. If
it is important to you that people find your web site then
it is important to you to create well written text and links
on your web pages that the search engines can find, read
and follow. Search engines can not see the text in a Flash
page. Search engines can not see hyper-links on flash pages
and therefore can not follow the links. Your web page will
not seem very important to most search engines because to
a search engine your web site will consist of one page and
the only relevant information that the search engine will
see is your meta-tags if they exist.
Having said all of that, there are arguably ways to get
a Flash site indexed and catalogued by a search engine. It
simply is not the easiest thing to do and you will likely
require a Search Engine Optimization specialist to assist
you.
Reciprocal Linking
If you are kind enough to put links on your web site for
other web sites then you are providing them with a “vote
of confidence” in terms of search engine rankings. The more
web sites that link to a web site, in the eyes of the search
engine, makes the linked web site more important. Taking
that a step further, the more important the web site that
links to you the higher the potential ranking your site will
get. Likewise sites that provide you with a reciprocal link
are in effect giving you their “vote of confidence” and in
turn making your web site more important.
Remember what I said earlier? Search engines can not see
hyper-links when they are embedded into flash. So although
the links are appreciated they will not contribute to the
search engines perception of how valuable your web site may
be to the world and as a result all those “votes of confidence” are
going to waste.
Make sure that people who provide you with a link from their
web site to your is not embedded into a flash page. Links
should be in pure HTML or Hyper-Text MarkUp Language. If
you provide links to other web sites on your site, the same
applies to you, use HTML.
Don't Break my Back Button
Web-browsers all have a back button. As software users,
and more specifically as web surfers, we use the back button
as a matter of course. It is a good practice as a web developer
to not ‘break the back button'. Unfortunately because of
the nature of Flash, the back button doesn't work for backward
navigation in the flash web site.
Create a Bookmark if You Can
People like to bookmark pages on the internet so that they
can quickly return to them later on. Web surfers do not always
bookmark the index page, or the main page, of a web site.
For example if you site has a nifty currency converter or
a great mortgage calculator on it, people may simply want
to bookmark just that page. You can not bookmark an internal
page within a Flash site. You can only bookmark the main
page. Try it. Visit a 100% Flash web site, surf around a
bit, then try to bookmark the page you are looking at. It
doesn't work, because you literally haven't changed pages
from when you first arrived at the site, you have simply “played
the animation” which made it appear as though you went to
different pages.
Cost
The cost to develop a traditional marketing
web site using standard design graphic, HTML and text is
in most cases less expensive than using Flash. If you designer
proposes to use Flash, ask the question, “how much would
it cost to do the same thing without flash?”.
Making Revisions and Updates
If you have your web site built
100% in Flash, you have subscribed to a certain skill-set
in your designer. If you want to make revisions you will
always need to use someone who can work within Flash. The
same theory applies if your web site is images, HTML and
text. The distinct difference is that there are far more
web masters that work with the later than in Flash. It also
typically will take longer to make revisions to Flash sites
and as a result your cost of maintenance can be quite steep.
The Source Files
Flash source files are the heart
of a flash movie, element or web site. The file will be names
something like myWeb site.FLA. This is the native un-compiled
source file for a Flash file. Once the designer is ready
to deploy the Flash to the web server the file is compiled
into a different format. The compiled file in our example
would be called myWeb site.SWF.
So to clarify, the original artwork and design is worked
on in the .FLA format and the final file that goes on the
web server is .SWF.
I see it time and time again where the designer does not
provide the client with the source file for their flash elements
or web site. They protect the .FLA files, and guess what,
you have to go to them for updates and revisions. It does
not matter how talented your new web master or designer is,
if you do not have the source file with the .FLA extension
for your Flash site you will not be able to update it. You
should ask your designer to provide you with this source
file if you decide to use Flash elements on your web site.
A Final Note On Flash
Please do not interpret my remarks
here as me being “anti-flash” the
fact is, it really is a great media technology. If you have
the budget and want to develop your web site using 100% pure
flash, there are some things you can do to mitigate some
of the pitfalls that I have described here.
Use a javascript to detect the browser capabilities of the
visitor and ensure that they have Flash plug-in to support
the Flash on your site. If the result of this simple test
is ‘no they do not support Flash' then the right thing to
do is direct them to an alternative HTML based web site with
your content. So, although you can overcome the missing Flash
plug-in you have to have two web sites designed (the Flash
one and the HTML one).
In Summary
Flash is a great design tool to add elements to your Web site
to ‘spice it up'.
Flash is great for delivering rich media like audio and
video.
Use the theory, add flash to your web page, and don't add
your web page to flash and you will deliver a great experience
to your visitors.
If your web site is about delivering information, make the
information first and the design second. Web sites that provide
great content do not need to wiggle, giggle, blink, click
and buzz.
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