Flash is a powerful web technology that achieves a high level of visual
impact from the graphical point of view. Unfortunately, it is widely misused in
web design. There are still many problems with Flash, especially related to
usability and search engine behaviour; we need to thoroughly understand what
those problems are before we decide to use Flash for our site.



As with any business decision, it all boils down to understanding what our
target audience wants.



If you want to make a big impression from a graphical point of view, Flash is
definitely a good approach. However, concrete evidence still points to the fact
that most web users utilize the web to find information, and what they regard
most important is:



a) quality of content



b) ease of navigation, and



c) speed.



Users also consider the web a highly interactive medium: they are unlikely to
watch a computer screen for long periods of time without giving some sort of
input.



Flash technology presents several problems that go against the way most people
use the web. For example:



Bandwidth and Load Time Constrains: Sites designed with Flash take a long
time to download and consume vast amounts of bandwidth. Not all users have a
broadband connection. Flash forces users with dial-up connections to spend
valuable time watching the load bar, instead of getting to the information they
want, fast.



Usability Constrains: When you navigate a Flash site designed with a
older version, the back button does not work: instead of taking you to the
previous screen, it will get you out of the Flash site. Also, the standard
colors for visited and unvisited links will not work, and users have no control
over the text size they want to use.



Furthermore, many times Flash sites go against the interactive nature of the
web. Since Flash technology favors a "presentation style" approach that
resembles television, users are many times reduced to mere observers that get
bored after a while, no matter how good the graphics look.



Search Engine Constrains: Although large search engines like Google now
have some Flash indexing capabilities, these are still very limited. You will
definetely have a hard time achieving high rankings with a Flash site. One
option around this problem is to design a second, search-engine-friendly HTML
version of your site. This, though, usually represents an unnecessary expense in
both time and money, since in most cases the HTML version alone will get the job
done.

Although few, there are some instances when Flash technology can actually be
helpful:



a) When you need to show a presentation, for example a demo of your
product.



b) To develop interactive games, like those found on sites for kids like
Sesame Street, Nickelodeum, or Yahoo! Games.



c) When you want to dress up a minimalist site. In this case, a small
Flash animation or banner embedded in an HTML document will not consume
excessive bandwidth, will load fast, and will enhance the appearance of a
bare-bones site.



Although Macromedia (the company that developed Flash) is actively working to
improve Flash's usability problems (they even formed a partnership with
usability guru Jakob Nielsen in 2002), issues like slow downloads and search
engine un-friendliness still remain a problem. Until these issues are addressed
and solved, you will be better-off by only using Flash in those rare instances
when it actually enhances the value of your content.

By Mario Sanchez

Mario Sanchez is a Miami based freelance writer who focuses on Internet
marketing and web design topics. He publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net
), a growing collection of web design and Internet marketing articles, tips and
resources.

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