Advantages and Disadvantages of Flash-based Web Sites

Flash-based web sites have been a craze these past few years, and as

Macromedia puts more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict

there will be more and more flash web sites around the Internet. However,

Flash based web sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where

exactly do we draw the line? Here's a simple breakdown.

Advantages:

Interactivity

Flash's Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and

designers have used Flash to create interactive features ranging from very

lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level

of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized site

With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No

more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet

Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash,

they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player

installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a

much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for

animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as

opposed to real "movie files" that are raster based and hence much larger in

size.

Disadvantages:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view

Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably

because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to

view your site. You'll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the

user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn't have the player

installed.

Site optimization

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn't be able

to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search

engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash content compared to

regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and

click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk

losing visitors.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the

interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of

Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple

textual and graphical information.