September 28, 2011. Samuel Valero
New website developers often think they should use Flash to impress their visitors, whereas truth be told, what their visitors really want is fast information minus the bells and whistles. This article will help you make a good choice about whether to develop a new site in Flash or HTML.
As a web designer with 14 years experience, one question new clients usually ask is “should I have Flash”? Nine times out of ten (or maybe more like 98 out of a 100) I say no, usually for a number of reasons.
The first reason comes down to cost. Flash sites often take much longer to produce than HTML-based sites and due to many built-in limitations, take much longer to make updates and changes. Most of the features found in HTML’s basic programming format have to be coded from scratch in Flash, which increases production time considerably.
The second reason to avoid Flash is update cost. Unless you’re using a Flash template system with a lot of programming, updating your Flash site will take much longer and is usually dependent on your designer’s availability to make updates. To be fair, some Flash templates have improved this problem quite a bit, but client’s usually need to make a steep learning curve to learn the XML formatting necessary to update their site by themselves.
The third major reason to not use Flash is that your visitors simply don’t care. They may be awe-struck the first time they visit your website, but if repeat visitors is what you want, they’re going to return for content, not the intricate swoops and swishes associated with Flash-based sites. The majority of web surfers want relevant content that is easy to access — Flash often acts as an impedance to that desire, making it too difficult to obtain the content they want.
Exceptions to these rules are for specialty sectors such as movie productions, fashion and other artistic types who really require making a “flashy” impression, but as they are few and far between, most developers are better off going with an HTML-based structure instead of Flash. HTML makes for much more affordable websites, is easier to maintain and will be simpler for visitors to use. Better still, many development companies offer website packages that make getting an HTML-based site up and running more cost effective than ever.
Updated September 28, 2011. Published June 14, 2011. Samuel Valero
