The topic of flash multimedia is a highly debated topic. On the one hand you have the you have to rich media evangelists and on the other you have the usability experts. Each side has good arguements, but which side do you need to be on? You could be on the side of the usability experts who argue that flash is evil and that the technology uses to much, while the media evangelists stick to their guns claiming that bad web designers should be to blame for excess not the techonology.

 There are a couple different kinds of ways that you could use flash. There are complete “flash sites” where the whole site is complete flah integrated site, although it can be effect most users find that there is too much flash on the site.  You could also add some flash to a simple HTML designed site. These sites are recommended by the usability experts, if you want to add flash to your site.  Some flash only sites are accomadated by non-flash sites, to cater to a wider variety of users. A few other ways that you can use flash mutltimedia is in banner advertising and interactive button advertisments.

So should you use flash on your website? My answer would be yes. But consider a few of these details:

  • Flash content is not properly indexed on search engines - Although search engines are able to index information from flash animation, I would not recommend putting important information in a flash animation. Most search engines pass up the information because they can not properly index the information
  • Complex flash animation can introduce usability issues - For example, a user may try to use the back button on their browser to return to the previous page, but it will just restart the animation! This is something a desinger will nee to consider when building a flash interface.
  • You can’t be sure that all you visitors will see the flash content - Pretty obvious, you will want to have alternative content for when the flash does not load.

96% of web developors have flash mutltimedia on their browsers! Does this prove that flash is something that you need to use? No!  There are a few questions that you consider before you decided if you need flash:

  • Will flash help me communicate with my audience? - The first thing that you need to consider is if flash makes sense to use. Will you be able to convey your point better to the audience in how you will adress their concerns, as well as keep the users needs and perspectives in mind.
  • Will my audience have the right plug in? - The estimate is that 85% of users have the flash capabilities, with new browsers being shipped with flash already built in. But that still leaves 15% of people who don’t have the capability or have an outdated version.

Now the big question is, Is flash a friend or a foe? I would say both. There are some ups and downs of the use of flash and it is hard to decide when you need to use it or not. I hope though, that I have informed you enough for you to make the right decision for your website.