May 26th, 2008

If you’ve ever seen a site made entirely of pretty Flash pages, you know it can look unique and very catchy. Almost “Flashy,” if you will. But if you’ve seen enough of these sites you’ve likely noticed some obvious problems, but there are many more considerations lying beneath the surface you might not have even considered.

The first problem is one of functionality. Poorly written scripts are often riddled with bugs. If you’re going to run full-tilt with Flash, you’re going to have to test the heck out of it, and not just yourself in your one browser on your one computer.

If it hasn’t been tested across at least four or five configurations, you may be missing something critical to the functionality. I’ve seen sites on which the monitor’s resolution had to be unusually high just to display the “contact” buttons. It looked great but fully 20% of the readers couldn’t take action to reach them if they tried. Test with different browsers; resolutions from 640×480 up to 1600×1200 on both Mac and PC, even if your site is all about Macs or PCs.

Another downside to Flash is in the appearance. If it’s overbearing or confusing, it can do more harm than good. Keep it simple.

If you want to include sound effects, keep them subtle. If you want to include music, keep it turned off by default. Nothing will get your readers fired up more quickly than trying to read your site at work while your music blares unexpectedly across the top of the cubicle farm.

Many readers have older versions of Flash or Flash disabled entirely. This scenario creates the same problem you’ll find with search engines, which is basically that your site becomes invisible.  Always offer non-flash browsers an alternative jpg image to the flash file. This can be done automatically in the no script tag.

The hidden danger with Flash is that search engines have a hard time understanding what the page is about. Search engines read page text and headers very well, but often have no idea what’s inside of your Flash files. They just aren’t setup to be read that way.

You can solve these problems by creating a non-Flash version of the site as a companion. It should have all the same text and equivalent links, and it will be infinitely friendlier to the lowest common denominators on your site.

Flash intro pages at the front of your site should be avoided at all costs. Anywhere from 30-70% of readers will never look any deeper into your site than the first page they see. With bounce rates that high, it’s critical that the first page they see have all of the critical information they will need. Very few people run intro videos all the way through, since they’re rarely helpful and often annoying.

The last consideration for the use of Flash has to do with cost. Qualified, competent Flash designers charge big money, and the jobs aren’t as quick as you would hope. If your business really needs that extra pound of singular splash, go for it. Make sure your designer has experience and ask to see past projects. Ask what those past projects cost to get an idea of what you’re in for. Don’t pay more than half up front; there are horror stories all over the web of inexperienced Flash designers taking the money and not delivering a mutually agreeable finished product.

For many, the right amount of Flash is an unobtrusive but interesting header or logo and maybe an interactive menu. Make sure you have static links elsewhere on the page for the menu as a backup, and an alternate image specified for the logo.

As long as you test everything and make sure it’s not obnoxious, the only real limit to how much Flash is too much Flash comes down to what you need, what you can afford, and how much skill your designer has.

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