Flash Website Design - The Gervais Group

PR Log (Press Release) – Feb 25, 2009 – What can Adobe Flash do for websites?

When it comes to all of the options available today regarding web design, there is one that is gaining tremendous momentum, Adobe Flash. Flash is a program that allows its users to incorporate motion and graphics within their websites. With elements of motion added, it can make a site look more pleasing to its visitors. Flash also allows for more information inclusion in smaller spaces due to the many effects that can be used to animate site content or links.

Adobe Flash and SEO

Flash has a lot of strengths in regards to how it can make sites look and feel, but there can be drawbacks. When considering using Flash it is very important to remember SEO, especially with the potential to damage or hinder web spiders page crawling if Flash is not used correctly.  One of the most common mistakes sites make when using Flash, is over usage. Flash can make HTML code look complicated to the eye which in turn would make it hard for a web spider to get past all it's character elements. In other words, a little Flash goes a long way.

Best Site Type for Flash

Depending on what purpose a site is going for depends on how much Flash it should have, if any. Websites that only offer a small amount of content or products and services should consider using Flash to bolster the emotions of its visitors. Including products within Flash animation can make a big difference in the way it is perceived over just a simple static picture. While sites that are mostly content based might want to think of either very limited usage or another design tool. As Flash could be seen as distraction on a site where the visitor is there to read and gather information.

Things to Consider when using Flash

There are still many slow adopters when it comes to high speed Internet options. When Flash is used in a website it makes the page a lot larger in terms of memory, which affects load times. Depending on who the site is targeting, it would be a shame to preempt traffic because of the type of browser or connection they have. Even top of the line mobile browsers have not got Flash to work successfully as of yet.  Making sure that a sites Flash elements work with all available browsers is also important, as in the way HTML is written can affect it's outcome from browser to browser. Flash can also be very expensive to incorporate with a site, which is not to say that having it isn't worth it, but must be understood before this step is taken.

So when are Flash website designs good? They are perfect for demonstrations of a product or if you are developing interactive games as part of your website marketing plan. Used in moderation, these graphic website design elements make nice banners or logo designs that can be encoded in your HTML and are perfect to make a minimalist website more exciting.