Article: To Flash or Not To Flash

Clients often ask me if they should have a Flash intro page for their corporate website. Generally, most feel that with a Flash intro would make their website more interesting, professional and sellable. The truth is far from it.

What are Flash intros? For the benefit of those who do not know, Flash intros are animated movies that fills up the entire homepage of a website. The movie usually introduces, but not limited to, the company, their products and services.

Flash intros use to found on many websites but today you find less of them. Why is there a declining usage of Flash intros and even Flash objects/movies in web sites?

Let's consider some big IT names like Microsoft, HP, IBM, DELL and even Creative Technology, do they use Flash intros? You may find a Flash object on their homepage, but not a Flash intro. Why is it so, after all, isn’t Flash intros great fun? That's just what it is, Flash intros are just great fun.

How many times do you remember sitting through an entire Flash intro when you arrive at a website? What is your natural reaction when you see a Flash intro? That's an obvious answer, look for the “Skip Intro” button or link. Visitors to a website are there to look up information, watching a Flash intro requires time that most visitors are not willing to give, time is money.

Even if you were to sit through the Flash intro, which normally leads you to a non-Flash page, which page do you bookmark or add to Favorites, the Flash intro or the non-Flash page? Once again, the answer is obvious... the latter. Would you want to view the same Flash intro again on your next visit? Not likely.

Flash is a great product, and there are appropriate and suitable usages for Flash movies, take for example, the BMW's flash presentation that gives a viewer an excellent tour of their cars. An important factor to car buyers is the design and look of the car, so a visual presentation is important and using Flash here is an excellent idea.

If you must use Flash for your website, remember, don't "over" Flash, use minimal animations for rollovers and for click activations. The point is, don't make your visitors wait. Many times I have “died” looking at some web designer’s portfolio that had too many Flash animations in them. The time taken to view their designs and bio-data simply turned me off because of those long-winded preload animations! Yes, yes, you’ve got the skills; remember the expression, “get on with it”?

Most Flash movies for marketing purposes do not achieve their objective when presented over a website. A successful Flash movie must capture a visitor’s attention within the first 2-3 seconds, including loading time, that is the amount of time required to locate the skip intro button. Never, ever hide the skip intro button till the end, it is worse if you don’t even have the skip option.

Flash wisely...

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About The Author Lo Wai Munn is a trainer, a technical writer and web content professional with more than a 15 years of experience. He has designed and managed the development of numerous websites.

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