How to use Flash in your Web Design

These days we hear a lot about Flash- mainly getting reminders to download an update from Adobe. Yet Flash is an extremely versatile programme that can make any website come to life with creativity, colour, and beauty.

We often see Flash used to create amazing galleries of photography and artwork. As well as these applications it is regularly used for online computer games, animations, online calculators, with flash being especially popular in movie trailer websites.

Whilst Flash, is well, flashy, it does have its limitations and disadvantages.

  • Because Flash is so image heavy it does take longer to load than normal websites
  • Search Engines struggle to view and therefore index a Flash page properly making it exceptionally difficult to rank well on Google. On the page where we have a Flash display highlighting what Explainafide does, you and I can read that we  can help you with Design, Web, Typography, Graphics, Color,  yet to Google it sees the whole animated section as nothing more than an unknown Flash display.

Therefore it is vital to use Flash sparingly.

If you do use it for your entire website such as a portfolio make sure you run a normal website along side it so Google actually knows what you do.
Another consideration is that Google now uses the amount of time to it takes to load a page in its rankings. If your entire sites takes too long to load this will affect your rankings negatively.
Don’t let it overwhelm a design.
As someone that looks at dozens of new websites a day it is easy for me to get carried away with Flash Designs. Yet we always need to remember that web design is about catering to your clients key demographics and not a bunch of chin stroking web designers.

Finally an amazing use of Flash for time lapse photography

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com

Inspiration - 25 May 2011 - by Rob Jennings

About Rob Jennings

When he found himself embroiled in a conversation with someone talking about their ‘customer-centric core competencies’ he realised it was time to create a Web Design Agency that was less about self promoting buzz-words and more about people and giving them the tools to understand the web.

The idea behind We Push Buttons was to create an environment where business owners can learn about building their organisation, whether it be with an outstanding website, SEO or any other marketing ideas. Coming from the art industry and online retail background he knows first hand the needs of growing a business in a tough environment.

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