What is Flash web design? | greensplash design blog

What is Flash web design? By Cheshire design consultancy greensplash

Author: Siu Coll (Business Development Manager)
Date: 08 Dec 2008

Categories: Web design articles Other articles

Before its introduction in 1996, websites were often quite barren: countless static pages of content interspersed with the odd animated GIFs... When Flash arrived on the scene, things changed. For many, Flash revolutionised web design. Today, Flash web design is frequently used by web designers to add interactively and animation.

So... what does this mean for the website owner? Aside from the whizzey-nature that catches the eye, Flash offers a number of benefits, whether your website is a 5-page affair or something much bigger. It allows you to show your website content in a more visual and engaging way, enabling you to express your messages better. Product imagery can be showcased in a glorious technicolour animation in a way that captures the imagination. It can also be used to draw attention and push traffic to key parts of your website. Moreover, video content can now also be integrated into web pages using Flash. Really, whatever the goals of your website, there will be 101 ways in which Flash can be used to support these.

But, like most things in life, as well as the pros, there are also some cons. Two key ones spring to mind. The first is accessibility. Accessible web design is an entirely different subject, but, broadly-speaking, it’s about designing your website so that it doesn’t exclude disabled people. Unfortunately, used in the wrong way, Flash content can struggle to make for accessible sites. And when this is the case, it’s not just those with disabilities than can have a poor experience, the website’s entire performance (e.g. page load time and conversion rates) can also suffer.

The second not so good thing about Flash in web design is search engine performance. Basically, heavy-handed use of Flash can make it a challenge for search engines to read your website content. If search engines struggle to read it, your site is far less likely to have a strong search engine presence.

Fortunately for us web designers and website owners, Adobe has been working on overcoming both accessibility and search engine optimisation limitations in the most recent releases. Nonetheless, it’s always worthwhile giving due consideration to how your website is designed when you’re using Flash to ensure that you’re maximising your website opportunities.

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