When to Be Flash-y: Is a Flash based Website Right For Your Website?

Flash makes websites, well, flashy. It’s a great tool for making sites that use animation and motion to engage their audience in an online, interactive experience. However, Flash based website designs are not a good fit for every business.

Here are a few considerations when deciding if your site should use Flash or a more traditional HTML / CSS / Javascript based display.

• Cost. Flash development typically costs more than equivalent HTML pages because it requires significantly more time and resources to create the actionscript and interactive features.
• Do you want to see your site on Mobile devices, Smartphones, and Tablets? Not all mobile devices - including Apple’s very popular iPhone and iPad - support Flash. This means users with these devices won’t get to see your site at all if it is Flash based. Flash can also slow down devices because of the processing speed needed to run them efficiently, creating the potential for a frustrating user experience with your website.
• Will you chase away your customers with it? A great Flash animation can really attract attention - but if your user is simply trying to find your information or look at your product, a long Flash animation will likely frustrate them and send them away from your site before they even really see it. People’s attention spans on websites are really short. If they can’t scan your site and find what they’re looking for within a few seconds, you’ll lose them, and they probably won’t be back.

Flash can be the right choice for some web projects. Games, immersive or interactive experiences and sites that showcase a lot of videos or other rich media may be well suites to Flash-based development.

Our Chicago-based team of developers can work with you to decide of Flash is a fit or not for your project and explain in detail the pros and cons and the costs associated with choosing Flash.

Contact Chicago’s Indigo Design Company at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 866.389.4643 to learn more.