As an aspiring Flash designer at college, a full portfolio site made in Flash seemed to be the way forward. Enhanced interactivity, animations, music, and general amazing things could happen in Flash. Looking back, and even with improved Flash indexing capabilities on Google, I can see that was all a very bad idea…

A full site made in Flash, may look snappy and (sometimes) easier to create, but going overboard with all the amazing things we know Flash is capable of becomes somewhat off-putting and distracting. Plus Google is still not a huge fan of Flash navigated sites. Nowadays I find nothing worse than a site with a ‘please wait’ loading bar before you’ve even reached the homepage, I’m not sure how I used to put up with it when the internet was much slower! Let’s face it, if someone who works with and enjoys Flash finds their patience tested by these things then how will an everyday internet user react? Probably by clicking the back button on their browser and heading for the next site on the search result list.

Flash is an amazing tool however, and is certainly not to be dismissed at all. With many ordinary sites Flash is best used in moderation, perhaps a simple animated banner, or if you’re really ‘flash’ (ahem) a fun game or interactive element. Never go over the top with buttons that have animations longer than your readers attention span and leave the heavy Flash developing to the experts creating amazing games and animated content. If you really want to use Flash, keep it simple and directly beneficial to your site.

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