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Looks like every client wants a Macromedia Flash site these days but the reality is...as flashy as these sites may look, there are many negatives you may want to consider before delving into Flash. Deadly Sin One: Long load times This is the most obvious problem with most Flash sites. Flash files can get large in a hurry and if the page takes too long to load, your visitor will move on without even seeing your site. Ideally, you would want your Flash web page to load just as fast as a 'regular' page with text and images. And yes, it can be done! Problem #1 - Images The whole reason why Flash was developed was to be able to use vector graphics on web pages. Vector Graphics are infinitely smaller than pixel based images, they can be resized to any size and animated without creating large file sizes. Unfortunately, many designers use regular pixel based graphics like photos in their Flash design and end up with huge files. Rule #1 for good Flash design should be...Use Vector Graphics only! Problem #2 - Sound What is a good picture without sound? Once you have this great Flash animated
page, you want to add sound to it. This is the #2 culprit resulting in large
file sizes and slow loads. The trick here is to use loops. Flash Music Loops are
ultra short slices of music, that when looped in Flash play great background
music sound tracks that load fast and sound great. You can find Flash Music
Loops at http://www.flashmusictracks.com These loops that are near CD
quality and most are only 15k or less in size. They also offer a free Flash
Music Player that allows for the music to continue playing even if the visitor
switches to another page, you can even select a different music track or stop
the music at any time while browsing, totally impossible with any normal Flash
implementation. Another thing that helps keep file sizes down is to use low-res
MP3 files for button effects and sound effects. You don't really need 128k MP3
quality when most computer's speakers will sound just as good with 24k or 32k
MP3s. Another easy file size saver...use mono!
This fact is often overlooked. When you use Flash Buttons and Links, search engines will no longer find your links on the pages. This can be extremely disastrous for your search engine rankings. Search Engines need to be able to follow links to successfully index your site. Plus, the more well placed links the robot finds on your site, the higher your ranking will be. When you use all Flash, you won't have any visible links and you effectively kill any chance of being found on search engines. What's the answer here? This factor used to be important but today it's no longer relevant. In the early days of Flash, many web users didn't have the Flash plug in and they moved on to another site rather than to download and install Flash just to visit your site. This is no longer an issue. 99% of all web users will have browsers that can 'see' Flash pages and you no longer have to design a Flash and Non-Flash Version for your site. If your visitors run for the hills rather than stick around to visit your site it's the load time, not compatibility that is to blame. So what is a man to do? So, you don't have to be afraid of Flash killing your web business if you use
Flash wisely. |
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