Web Pitfall #2: Flash Abuse

Sep 26 2008

This is a trap that many business owners don’t just fall into, but leap into, headfirst and blindfolded all while tossing fistfuls of hundred dollar bills into the wind behind them as they fall. Get the picture? A great many business owners want cool, interactive, animated, Flash’ed-up sites because Flash’ed-up sites are, well, cool. It’s a way that they can show the world and, maybe more importantly, their friends, family and colleagues that they’ve arrived. But there’s only one problem… Most web audiences nowadays have a very LOW tolerance for Flash, at least in the way it’s used in many sites.

For a vast majority of sites, Flash is best used as an accent… A means of doing something interesting, surprising and unexpected with an element of your design. It’s also useful in helping your home page “freshen” itself every few seconds so your audience doesn’t get bored looking at it. But it’s no longer considered “OK” to have people jump up and start talking to the visitor as soon as the page loads. Other no-no’s are music or heavy video that start as soon as the page loads. And the once obligatory Flash “intro” is a complete waste of your money and your visitor’s time.

Here are some basic dos and don’ts for Flash:

DO: Animate your logo or another iconic element in a subtle and unexpected way.
DON’T: Use Flash in your navigation; many negative implications with search engines as well as mobile browsers.

DO: Use Flash in place of an otherwise static and purely cosmetic image.
DON’T: Animate actual page content. Bad for search engines and overall usability.

DO: Allow your users to play a streaming Flash video or audio presentation.
DON’T: Automatically start any audio or video upon page load, without your user’s consent. It’s overbearing and, let’s face it, annoying and potentially disruptive or embarrassing, especially when visitors may be surfing your site at work or in a public place.

DO: Use Flash to accent your site. Sort of like hot sauce, a little goes a long way.
DON’T: Build all or even close to a majority of your site in Flash as this will likely cost you visitors and severely impact your site’s presence on search engines as well as browsability (if it wasn’t a word before, it is now) on mobile devices.

DO: Use Flash to enhance your visitors’ experience.
DON’T: Use Flash to enhance your ego or impress friends. “Wiz-bang” or “bells and whistles” are not reasons to incorporate Flash into your web strategy; usually it’s another way of saying “I want to show off a whiz-bang web site with lots of bells and whistles.” Yes, this may be harsh but so is the reality — selfish marketing NEVER works. But we see this time and time again with clients everywhere. This may not be the worst mistake you can make on the web, but based on my experience working with small business owners it’s arguably the most common.