This section of our site is to help educate our visitors on the basics of flash technology and web site design principles used by a professional flash designer.
Overview of Flash Web Technology
Flash technology was created by Macromedia. Flash allows for digital movement in the form of a shockwave / flash video or flash movie. In our case we'll refer to it as a flash movie. Macromedia Flash Player is free to download and is now installed on almost all computers. Flash is the standard for interactive vector graphics and animation for a web site. This plug-in is simply the player required to play these movies made with flash.
Flash can be used to create beautiful and extremely compact navigation interfaces, technical illustrations, animations, and other dazzling effects. By combining digital motion, music and or sound effects flash exceeds any other web technology when it comes to presenting on the web. The entire web site may be built in Flash or smaller flash files can be embedded within the HTML page. When the entire site is made with flash, each page within the web site is usually made up of a set number of frames or scenes of that flash movie. Several separate flash movies can be externally loaded into the web site to reduce the overall file size. A Flash Logo, flash advertising banners, product demonstrations, tutorials, or flash games are often used to create excitement, interactivity and to attract attention.
The use of flash in a design can and is often missused. Our lead flash web designer in Phoenix, Arizona states the following as the Top Ten Rules of flash design:
Page transitions should be short. Statistics show that web site viewers will wait about 8 seconds for an image or flash file to load.
Proper navigation will indicate the current location within the menu or web page. This serves as a visual cue that helps visitors know where they are within your site.
Moving or rotating flash navigation buttons that the visitor has to catch with the mouse are not considered professional or acceptable navigation systems.
The flash buttons should not have to be pressed or required to have a mouse over to indicate what they are for. Navigation buttons that do not indicate or reveal their function are not user friendly. Clearly understood icons are sometimes acceptable but actual text is the best policy when it comes to your navigation buttons.
Careful design consideration should be given if you want a flash intro for your web site. For some industries and technology companies a well produced flash intro is a great way to introduce a new visitor to the web site and company, but remember you also will have repeat visitors your site. Offer the visitor an opportunity to enter the web site directly (i.e., skip the intro). Keep the length of the intro to a maximum of 30 seconds.
Flash can be a wonderful tool for product presentations or an educational "how to". These flash movies can be any length needed to accomplish the task as long as the load time is minimized.
For large web sites such as this one, a true web professional will suggest and offer a combination of flash and html pages within your site. This will greatly enhance the visitor's navigation, book marking, and load time. It also will enhance your search engine positioning.
If your web site has a page or pages that require frequent updates a web professional will include as many easily editable pages as you need in both the flash site and the html pages.
Music should always be optional. A professional site will include a mute button. During the design process a good designer can specify that the volume is to be played at a range of 0-100% of the visitors current sound setting on there computer. They can also specify fade in, fade out and the number of times the song or music loop is played.
Even though a loading bar may not be exciting to look at (they don't have to be ugly either ), a professional will always include a pre-loader that indicates that the site or flash file is loading.
When it comes to forms on your web site, standard HTML web forms are best. Many form elements, like radio buttons, check boxes, required content, dropdown lists and the use of the ‘Tab’ button, don’t respond in flash as they do in classic HTML forms.
Summary: Use a professional designer for flash. A pro will understand the technology, visitor behavior, visitor preferences, search engine requirements and much more. When the web site or page is created with flash technology, the site can be an outstanding experience and a dazzling presentation of your company. You can out shine even your largest competition.
Based in the "Valley of the Sun" Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona AZ