Flash On Websites: Good and Bad Flash Implementation

Written by Timothy Ceko Wednesday, 23 February 2011 08:04

When a client first comes to Just In Time Design, one of the first things they are always looking for is a way to give their website 'The WOW Factor".  Most of these clients have heard from friends or other small business owners (that are not in the web design field), that flash is the way to go if you want to wow your visitors.  To some extent, flash can enhance a users experience on a website.  Unfortunately, more often than not, the way flash is implemented on a website is what we refer to as "do dats".  The first time a customer sees your flash website, they say "that's cool, how did they do dat?".  The problem is after using the website for a few minutes or after repeat visits, the customer is now thinking "that's really distracting" or "that's really annoying".  The question they have on their mind has now changed to "why did they do da dat?".  This article will cover the basics of flash implementation for situations when you should or should not use flash on your website.  What you'll see is that more often than not, you should use HTML and not flash.  But there are times, although not often, when flash should be used.