December 14th 2007 Posted to
internet
You should hate flash web sites.
First things first. Adobe Flash is a nice tool, but not to create websites. You should not trust a Designer or a Design Company that build their own page using only, 100% width x 100% height, flash animations. You may ask, “why not?”. Simple, it only proves that they don’t know how to write good quality HTML code following the standards. That is not the only reason, I can list a few more:
- It does not render well on mobile devices or small screens.
- If you have special needs and use a screen reader, you will have problems.
- Should I mention that stupid music that plays loud and make your co-workers look at you with a not-so-happy-face?
- Wait 20-30 seconds while the content loads, no thanks.
- If the intro animations is good enough and worth be seen, why the pseudo-designer adds a ‘skip intro’ button?
- A few flash functions does not work well on Linux browsers. Even Opera for Windows has some difficulties to handle it properly.
- Zero, nada, niente Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for you. Your site content will not be searchable on Google and other engines. Your competitors will.
If you love flash, at this time you are probably cursing on me. But, as I previously stated, flash is a nice tool if used under the right conditions. “The right tool for the right job” concept.
There are lots of good examples out there.
- Youtube embedded movie player
- Sydney Opera House Map
- SlideShare.com, the Youtube for PowerPoint
- Flickr slideshow viewer
So, if you are thinking on creating a flash site, or a web designer is trying to sell you one. Think twice!
