Flash and usability – why we say no!

Having things moving on your website generally means using Flash or animated Gif files.

Movement on a web page is sometimes useful, to demonstrate for example how a moving valve works, but more often a means of trying to make a boring website more visually interesting.

The latest browsers view Flash as an optional extra and it requires activation on each site – Vista adds more constraints on user interfaces with plugins like Flash.

At worst Flash can render your site invisible to search engines, at best it can distract from the message you are trying to deliver or create a blank space in your site. Read our quick guide on why not and check out the links for more information from the experts.

Flash introductions – pure vanity!

You know the scene – floating logo parts combining to form a whole over a few seconds, and you search frantically for the 'skip' button. Bad news when research confirms you only have 4 seconds to grab attention online

As well as being almost universally disliked by web users This combination of Flash and ‘splash page’ can also block search engine crawlers.

We say very 1990s, definitely do not go there!

Flash built websites

In the late 1990s there grew a short lived fad for building entire sites in Flash. A kind of online movie with fat fees and production costs. Poor usability and invisible to search.
These hotshot agencies persisted (the fees were large) and devised ways of creating parallel pages for search engines to crawl that were not visible to users, the search engines cottoned on , the sites got blacklisted and need we say more....

We say no, just because you can does not mean you should.

Flash navigation

See Flash built websites. NO!

Flash banners or embedded flash objects

Still common as a compromise, don’t really affect search engine performance, need alternative content to remain accessibility compliant. Probably a distraction unless you are selling a moving part that you need to demonstrate. But OK. If you don’t mind your visitor having to take time out to download a plugin, and waiting a bit longer for the download on a dial up connection.

At least until Microsoft Vista came along. Here is the extra twist. To install plugin on Explorer or Firefox in Vista you have to be logged in as an administrator, but you also have to open the programme by right clicking on the icon and selecting open as administrator. Otherwise the plugin has to be downloaded each and every time a Flash object is encountered. Many users at work will not have administrator access anyway. More hassle for users.

We say if you must .... but consider the above