Why Adobe® Flash® is a Good Choice for Websites
by Tony Moy (www.tecture.net)
Ok, so you’ve heard from the rest about why you should not have flash websites. Search the web for "reasons for Flash", and you will get links upon links of why Flash should perish/die/disappear or just go the way of the dodo. Yet Flash is still as prevalent as ever. Flash is on more internet enabled desktops than Windows Media players or Quicktime players, with a penetration rate of 98%. The actual Flash Player is a small one time 1MB download which allows users who do not currently have the latest version upgrade easily. It is distributed far more ubiquitously than any other browser or operating system. To throw away such a pervasive tool would seem folly. And it is exactly that point that we should remember. Flash is a tool. Just because you have a hammer, does not make everything else a nail.
"So when is a good time to use Flash?"
There are a few major categories of websites out there. Not all of them were meant for flash. Flash excels at creating an emotional connection between the users and a promotional message or product. Providing a very unique and memorable experience to a site that otherwise might be a bit lackluster.
Got video? Got Audio? There is no better way to integrate video and audio into a site than flash. Flash’s video compression is actually quite efficient at streaming video feeds. Requiring only a small player footprint to display complex content.
"But flash is not SEO friendly."
True. Google and the rest of the search engine world is still trying to find a consistent method for cataloging the content on flash websites. But there are methods to help ensure that flash content can be catalogued by search engines. The most common is the use of swfObject by DeConcept, where content is placed on the page as primary content. The primary content mirrors the content that is within Flash. This allows the user to gain the Flash experience, yet still allow content to be easily consumed by Search Engines. There are also several other methods to allow internal secondary flash content to be indexed. All take a little more work and effort beyond the typical flash implementation.
"Flash content is a pain to update"
Flash content on the surface can be more complex. Navigating your way through multiple timelines and movieclips to get to content can be quite confusing. But fortunately, Flash does have the ability to create dynamic content. Content management in Flash needs to be addressed and developed from the initial build. Do not wait for the end of the project to indicate which content elements need to be managed. A good Content Management System and a solid flash developer can provide a simple and intuitive framework to easily update Flash content.
"Flash Usability isn’t very usable."
Usability is a concerted product of user interactions crossed with solid design. An unusable design or navigation is not dependent upon the tools that built it. Flash does not inherently lend itself to poor usability any more than HTML lends itself to great usability. By nature, Flash development has been an experimental field that allows many developers and designers alike to push the boundaries of web design. As such, convoluted and confusing navigation schemes appear more frequently in Flash. However, this does not preclude a very well designed and usable Flash site when experimental tendencies are kept under control.
Integrating Flash allows a site to utilize metaphors from desktop, double clicks, contextual menus, drag and drops and custom video/audio controls, which would be difficult in static pages. Taking experiences familiar to a user and porting it to website navigation. In short, poor usability and design is not created by Flash, but by poor designers and developers who do not pay attention to rules of usability.
"Website visitors can’t link to pages."
On a simpler level, this is absolutely correct. But a well formed site, will not just utilize flash but other tools as well. Incorporation of flash, JavaScript and XML can produce a flash website that can capture history of a browser and links to internal page based on query string values. A properly planned and executed flash site will allow your content to be easily paginated and referenced.
"What to do?"
Use flash appropriately and selectively. Full flash sites are slowly evolving into hybrid sites. Hybrid sites use flash in specific sections of the page to help highlight and display vital data in a unique and user-friendly manner while still keeping the crux of the content in HTML. Flash development seldom stands alone, but must utilize good implementation of JavaScript and XML. Take into account your reasons for considering flash, analyze the tools at your disposal, and develop intelligently and your flash site will be robust, usable and memorable.
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