Flash Animation – What Are The Advantages For Your Website?
Flash is an excellent means to create a visually appealing element to your website but the general consensus is that Flash should be used in moderation. Use too much Flash based graphics and you run the risk of cluttering your website and alienating viewers to the extent that they look elsewhere for a product. However, when used in economical manner, Flash animation really can add an extra dimension to your site and just some of the benefits include:
- Expressing Website Through Animation – Flash animation is a good tool for many websites as it can say in a brief animation what it would normally take hundreds of words to describe. Flash is a vector type animation and, as such, has a relatively small file size and is a fairly easy medium for web designers to create animations.
- Heightened Interactivity – Flash animations will create unrivalled interactivity on a website in a way that traditional text only based sites simply can't. Flash can be used to create games, interactive forms and all sorts of visually appealing animations which will keep visitors coming back time and time again.
- Universal Tool – Flash is a godsend to web developers in that it is a multi-platform piece of software. It works on all browsers from Firefox to Internet Explorer, so, developers need not worry how their animations will appear on various different browsers.
Flash Animation – What Are The Disadvantages?
It would be naïve to presume that the use of Flash animation has universally positive effects on a website. As already mention, if it is used to excess, it will alienate viewers and some of the other disadvantages of using this type of media include:
- Limited Users – The problem with Flash animation is that it requires the end user to have a Flash player installed on their computer. If they don't have the requisite download, they will be redirected to a download site which may turn viewers off and see them heading elsewhere with their business.
- Loading Time – Whilst Flash based animations are relatively small in size, they still add to the loading time of a website and in a time of increasingly impatient web users, any further loading time will increase the likelihood of the user clicking elsewhere for their business.
- Website Optimisation – Flash animations inhibit the capability of search engine spiders and algorithms to index and rank a website, so, Flash animations can have the effect of being counterproductive in terms of establishing a web presence for your website.
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