The exciting world of Flash animation. I've seen some pretty impressive Flash work out there, including www.rustedfaith.com, www.simplicity.com.au (a cv with a definite difference) and www.guardianinsurance.com.au. Go out and take a look, they are well worth the visit.

There are also a number of very bad Flash animations - including my own first attempt, which thankfully I had the good sense to remove - I was awarded the "Services to the Internet Community" award for that decision!

Aside from graphic design issues it boils down to bandwidth and load times. A well thought out and presented Flash animation will be impressive a to a visitor a couple of times and then become a monumental pain in the ass afterwards while waiting for it to load.

As I mentioned in a previous article, we don't all have DSL connections.

Another important factor is the effect that Flash elements have on search engines - absolutely none; and that is the problem. To the best of my knowledge, no search engine around is able to extract the textual elements from a flash animation. If the majority of your site's content exists within Flash elements then you can probably kiss traffic from this source good-bye. Never understimate the value of search engines as a source of visitors to your web site - with the search engines, Taming the Beast.net would lose around 80% of our web site traffic, which amounts to tens of thousands of site visitors each month.

Use Flash with care. Understand your audience, and view your intended animation in a variety of environments. One of the best ideas I have seen is to offer two version of your sites on the first page - Flash and non-Flash. There is no point in having Flash detection if your visitor does not want to see it for the 50th time!

As with other graphic elements on your site, if overdone, it can totally detract from other site offerings. A menu system as part of your Flash production is a good idea. Flash has some amazing functionality, it's not just a pretty face.......

Michael Bloch
michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
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