To Flash or not to Flash

The opinion of Macromedia’s Adobe’s Flash program has varied over the years. When it first came out, it was very appealing to print and graphic designers who may not have had a strong web background. The program and it’s interface was very similar to a design program. It was simple and it was easy. When you placed an item on the stage, you knew it was going to be in that exact spot in every web browser on every computer. Suddenly, a person didn’t need to know any HTML, CSS or other programming languages in order to be a web designer.

Around 2004, there was an influx of web sites that were created entirely in flash. You could point these sites out immediately. Everything moved. Graphics moved. Buttons moved and made noises. Every page had an elaborate transition. And then the worst trend of all started… the intro page. Web sites began creating mini-movies that a user would have to sit through before they could actually enter the site. It became a game to see how fast you could find the tiny “skip intro” button.

Eventually, people started realizing that flash might not be the best way to design an entire site. One reason is that it had some user experience issues with Internet Explorer 6. Often, a user would have to click the flash object to “activate” it before they could click anywhere else… like on a navigation button. Another reason why people started going away from flash sites is that they are not search engine friendly. In fact, they are horrible. Search engines like google look for textual content in sites and use this to determine their rank. Since a flash site’s content is all contained within the flash object, a search engine spider cannot read it. Essentially, the site is just one big image. Not exactly the best way to get that coveted #1 spot on Google.

Because of these downsides, Flash started to become a dirty word among web designers. It was considered the easy way to design a site – the sign of a novice designer. “Purists” looked down upon the program and wouldn’t be caught dead using it in their sites.

But the truth is, Flash has some real value in web design. Though it probably shouldn’t be used to design an entire site, adding pieces of flash to your site can add some nice interactivity and, well… flash. I have seen some beautiful menus and banners made entirely in flash. It also handles media extremely well and most video players are now flash-based.

People are now using Flash for what it was meant to be — a site augmenter, not a site creator. Whenever someone asks whether or not they should use Flash in their web site, I say go for it, but keep it in moderation… and definitely no intro movies.