Pros/Cons of making a website in Flash?

[junglist]

Hi,

I am a graphic designer working primarily in print and am now making my first steps in web design. (actually my second, as I have made a very basic flash site many years ago)

I am a bit uncertan as to how to approach web design as there are seemingly endless ways to build websites. Anything from wrting HTML, to using Dreamweaver, Go Live, exporting web pages from In Design or Quark, or Fireworks, Photoshop and of course, Flash.

For the beginner the choices are a bit overwhelming.

I would be really appreciate if someone could please outline some of the major advantages and disadvantages of designing a site in Flash.

If possible, those of you who have worked using various techniques, could you please draw some comparisons with some of the methods I have outlined before.

Also, I might add that the website I am faced with building initially will require updates to text and images on a quarterly basis. Are sites in Flash particularly difficult to update when compared to some of the other methods?"

Thanks in advance. Although some of these issue may seem very basic to some of the more advanced usera on this forum, I can assure you I will find your advice very useful.

 

[junglist]

Also, in my reasearch I came across this article it is called "Flash is Evil"!:

http://www.dack.com/web/flash_evil.html

Could someone please comment on the following comment, taken from the above URL:

"I'm actually developing animation using Flash, but I definitely agree that Flash interfaces, generally speaking, are a horrible thing that's happening to the web. I should say "to the amateur web", because that's mostly what I see done with Flash. Flash is a streaming animation technology, and I think it should be reserved for that, for the most part."

What is your opinion on Flash interfaces and the idea that Flash should be used "solely as a streaming animation technology"?

 

[wangbar]

Notice that the article is five years old - the web has moved on and so has Flash (that article was written pre-Flash 5)

Flash is a powerful tool for building richly interactive interfaces which can hook up to powerful back-end solutions, it is no longer simply an animation tool. There is nothing that HTML can provide that a Flash site can't.

Flash is not evil, people who use it to implement bad designs are.

 

[DaveGoTech]

Flash is great for some sites, for example, in entertainment.
However, for business and informational sites, it is best not to use flash, or use it sparingly for specific tasks when required. Keep in mind that flash generally takes longer to develop and makes the pages take longer for the user to load (the majority of internet users today do NOT have broadband connections). Couple this with the fact that Flash is commonly not indexed by the search engines. I recently took over a site created by a fancy (high-priced) web designer. The Company was disappointed with the high cost, low amount of traffic and complaints of visitors and slow page loading. After consulting with us and a Marketing firm, it was decided to eliminate the flash. The entire site was reconstructed (using the original design) and now the site pages load quickly and has also received rave reviews.
If you are a beginner, I recommend sticking to the basics (keep it simple!). As you are a graphics designer, I expect you can use your skills in creativity to come up with 'rich content' instead of relying on flashy (sometimes irritating) images to drive your point home.

 

[junglist]

Are Flash sites particularly difficult to update compared to other sites?

 

[oldnewbie]

http://www.whatisflash.com/index.php?page=Anti-Flash+Sites

 

[chinedu]

I am a complete newbie to flash.
I have always enjoyed learning with examples.
Can someone, please list some flash sites with turorials and samples, especially intros.
I mean those intros with .fla files included.

Any help would be appreciated.