All those that have taken the time to understand the details of flash and all the advantage that it carries can easily get to know the pros and cons of having it on your website. The main use of it is to bring in the crowds and as much as possible convince them to buy what it is you are selling.
Advantages of using Flash:
– It is not dependent on the kind of OS that you have: Vista or Linux and the kind of Browser that you are using (but for the sake of passing information, Mozilla is the most common one and it has flash support). The only thing that a system needs is the plug ins and the flash applications become supported
– In today’s world, if you are going for animation then Flash is must. It has wider application in the field of animation.
– Most video works have flash support, like the common Media player that comes in most of Windows OS’s
– Flash games do not and are not affected by problems that have a bandwidth origin
– During Flash website development, vector graphics can look smoother and appealing. There is a facility of image replacement as well for the special fonts. The process of image replacement can be done with a technique known as sIFR i.e. Scalable Inman Flash Replacement. Besides the above mentioned features, Flash applications can also perform the task of script actions and data collection.
The Bad:
– Limitations with speed and the bandwidth. Most of the Flash websites are slow to download. In most of the cases, you cannot operate them before complete download.
– The ‚BACK‘ button available on web browser is very important as it is used by most of the people browsing the web. But with a Flash site, people may find problem with this facility. The online users may require renavigating right from the beginning.
– Because Flash website is based on images it is difficult for the screen reader to interpret it.
– It is not possible for the search engines to read and interpret them either. The web crawlers look for the suitable text or content and look for the standard HTML link(s) demanded by the user. Only those Flash sites come in top ranking that contains both versions of the site i.e. Flash + HTML.
– Not all among the internet savvy understand the function or the role that is played by the flash applications. In most of these cases, the unknowing internet users take them to be eye candy and this is bad especially if the user in question was a potential buyer.
Conclusion: So now you know all the pros and cons of Flash website development and it’s up to you to decide what is best. Flash offers numerous benefits but customer’s dissatisfaction and SEO inaccessibility are the prime drawbacks associated with it. When it comes to site navigation then it is highly recommended never to use Flash.