The Pro's and Con's of Flash Websites

Author: Jason Kroeger

 

I have experimented with a lot of programs to create websites, and have gotten into my own niche of which programs I prefer to use over others. One program that I have come across has been Macromedia (Adobe) Flash. As a stand-alone program, Flash works great and how it is said to work is pretty much exactly how it works in actuality. However, if you have ever used it yourself, you will probably agree with me that it is not best used in some situations! Read this article to find out my thoughts about why Flash is not the best program to use to create websites. Am I wrong? I would love to hear your feedback and experiences.

 

A little overview of Flash:

 

Flash is a program originally created by Macromedia (who was bought by Adobe over the last couple of years) created for online "video" steaming content. It has implemented ways to interact with the user and control the actions the video performs. Many online games were created with Flash, and it would be extremely surprising to find any other program using different technology. Among these, and the ability to have a user control what they see, websites have been creatively designed to provide (sometimes better looking) web designs than what is common.

 

As a designer, I have witnessed the importance of being able to edit your content as frequently and quickly as possible. With as many updates as one is suppose to be able to provide visitor's, Flash would make this extremely difficult. Flash is controlled primarily through its program counterpart. In most cases, one would have to actually go into the program and edit the actual .SWF (Flash file format) in order to provide a similar output a normal website would. Given, some innovations have been made so that outer sources like databases and text files control what is shown in certain pages, however, almost always someone will have to go in and edit the file in order to change items like navigation panels, and the like.

 

Basically, the normal way a website is created is through a coding language that is understood by many people, it would be a matter of typing and editing a few lines of code to enter new items into a normal website. Additionally, databases have been designed to control the actual navigation and content output. To me, this is a much simpler and viable solution to creating websites than any Flash formatted website could provide.

 

Does this mean that Flash is a bad tool to design websites with? Absolutely not. In fact, I almost prefer using Flash in place of some tools I use in creating normal websites. For example, Flash is known best for creating pictures in motion, or video. Sometimes, displaying this content is priceless to place on your website, and will attract a wide audience to view and enjoy your content.

 

Use Flash to strengthen your content, but in my opinion, do not use it to be the basis of all your website has to offer!

 

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Kroeger

 

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