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Questions for Web-Designers / Web Developers / Flash gurus etc.
Stavros Patsalidis
Messages count : 3
Likes count : 0
Registration :
27 October 2008
Hi, I am new to this community, and I hope you can help me with some research I am conducting...
I am a second year Graphic Design student in the UK, and I am working on a module titled "Research in the Commercial World", in which I must research a specific area of commercial practice.
My main area of focus is Web-Design, and how in recent years flash has shifted from being a secondary element in a website to one of the main ingredients of a successful site, possibly sometimes the sole ingredient...
I have put together three research questions that I would be grateful if as many of you could answer for me. The answers you provide me with will help me form an opinion on the matter, so I can then feed-back my findings and conclusions to my tutors.
The three questions are:
1. What decision making leads you to using flash in your websites?
2. Does it depend on the client to decide if they want you to use flash?
Or is it up to you?
3. Once you have decided to use flash within one of your websites, how do
you judge if it should be completely done in flash or a mix of
html/flash?
Thank you all in advance...
I am a second year Graphic Design student in the UK, and I am working on a module titled "Research in the Commercial World", in which I must research a specific area of commercial practice.
My main area of focus is Web-Design, and how in recent years flash has shifted from being a secondary element in a website to one of the main ingredients of a successful site, possibly sometimes the sole ingredient...
I have put together three research questions that I would be grateful if as many of you could answer for me. The answers you provide me with will help me form an opinion on the matter, so I can then feed-back my findings and conclusions to my tutors.
The three questions are:
1. What decision making leads you to using flash in your websites?
2. Does it depend on the client to decide if they want you to use flash?
Or is it up to you?
3. Once you have decided to use flash within one of your websites, how do
you judge if it should be completely done in flash or a mix of
html/flash?
Thank you all in advance...
- Contact in PM
SurreyWeb
Messages count : 15Likes count : 0Registration : 19 July 2008Hi Stavros
" My main area of focus is Web-Design, and how in recent years flash has shifted from being a secondary element in a website to one of the main ingredients of a successful site, possibly sometimes the sole ingredient..."
You seem to be using a research premise that is incorrect, flash use has declined by some way. This does vary geographically but in general, for serious design, flash is rarely used. Up and coming mobile devices have a problem, as do a few PCs and search engines. Google have improved their ability to read flash recently but this is still limited. Bearing in mind that functionality in search engines is a prime concern for most websites, why would they use flash.
Equally, improved understanding of better alternatives, such as wider use of CSS has enabled many designers to retain their ideas but in a user friendly way. I can only speak for a proportion of the web trade but would estimate that amongst serious site developers, the use of anything beyond a very small amount of flash is tiny. As for clients asking for this, bear in mind most clients know not too much about websites and can in any event be persuaded away from ideas that will not meet their true objectives.
So you might be better to move the focus of your research, in case you are researching an assumption that does not exist. - Contact in PM
Stavros Patsalidis
Messages count : 3Likes count : 0Registration : 27 October 2008Thank you very much for your reply!
I will take your opininion under consideration and my research till came to the conclusion : i believe that it is not Flash’s fault. On the contrary, it’s the clients and users (and designers to some extent) that are not yet ready to accept Flash a modern alternative to classic web design methods/process. - Contact in PM
mds
Messages count : 9Likes count : 0Registration : 16 March 2008
Not really, from my experience with my clients, most of them prefer to have well coded css/xhtml sites and then with little flash integration. Most people visit websites to go straight to business and not to waste time on beautiful animations. Though we cannot divorce the beauty of flash from giving a site a good appeal, the fact remains that most websites would do well when the information it presents is straight to point and also presents easy navigation around the site.Stavros Patsalidis, post: 8835 a écrit : I will take your opininion under consideration and my research till came to the conclusion : i believe that it is not Flash’s fault. On the contrary, it’s the clients and users (and designers to some extent) that are not yet ready to accept Flash a modern alternative to classic web design methods/process.
I agree with SURREYWEB that flash is becoming less appealing to the design world and i would like to add that i think it might go a little down the same path like frames in the future. - Contact in PM
Stavros Patsalidis
Messages count : 3Likes count : 0Registration : 27 October 2008i agree with you of course and that the way that i think all professional webdesigner like you is thinking and how they work . . but thank you very much for your qoute. . it was quite usefull to me honestly. . - Contact in PM
SPS
Messages count : 11Likes count : 0Registration : 9 December 2007- I only use flash for something visually appealing or video based. I never use flash for navigations or full websites unless specially asked.
- It's the client at the end of the day. I object to using flash for navigational purposes and make sure the client knows why. A simple "Google's not good at following those links" is good enough (and almost always Javascript can replicate the same effect). In the clients' eyes, if Google says no, it's a no. They want Google to index them. If they insist, it's extra time for myself as I always set-up alternate navigation methods. If a client wants a full flash website, I don't offer those services because I've never developed my Flash skills that far because of my objections.
- Answered above really.
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qwertydesign
Messages count : 1Likes count : 0Registration : 20 November 2008when a client really wants a flash based site, we end up using a web service for "handset detection" which helps us establish whether the browsing device is flash compatible or not.
So ultimately, we build a flash site, html site and mobile site. Our CMS then uses templates, so that we do not have to update the content for each platform.