Jun 09 2008
Flash Animation Is Not Everything
There are web designers who are overly fanciful about animations. They are talented and creative people. Look at their web sites. Flash animations fly here and there. Sometimes even the whole web site is Flash only.
Consider that you have to watch an unnecessary three-minute “about us” Flash movie before entering the web site. Will you not be turned off and click your way out of the site? The people wowed by the Flash experience maybe the designer and the web site owner only.
I am not against using Flash and animations. A beautiful web site is important. Some graphics and animations can indeed spice up a web site. But I am concerned of excessive use of Flash. Often it could undermine a web site’s user friendliness and search engine optimization.
This holds true unless the Flash designer puts on the shoes of a visitor to improve its usability, and knows how to optimize a Flash site for search engines. But unfortunately, not all creative designers are good at usability and marketing.
I am also not against any creative designers. They are important members in a web development team. But unless they can take a more holistic approach in a web project, they should not take charge of the project single-handedly.
A web developer should take all factors into account such as usability, information, attractiveness, SEO issues and user values or benefits. Which factors are more important depend on the web site’s purpose.
My view may not be popular among web designers. But I’m trying to speak for the interest of customers because they are our bosses. What is your view on this?
Update on 2/7/2008 - Google has just announced that now it can better “see” Flash elements and web sites and include them into their database. But there are still limitations. Read Google’s blog here.
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Agree. Flash are wasting time. Whenever i visited a website with flash, i always look for ‘Skip Intro’ button. People visit our website with some idea of what information they are looking at in mind already, Flash just wasting time.
i love flash..i don’t skip the intro of the site. It fun to watch or cool
Thanks Jayr for voicing your personal preference. But as a web developer and Internet marketer yourself, you should know what I wrote about is true…