Flash Sites - Great or Sucky?

[Morgan Ellis]

OK, since I'm in the mood to re do my entire site (again), I've been mulling over the idea of doing it in Flash.

I certainly do like the effects I can acheive via this route, but I have to wonder if it is more annoying to gentleman visitors than it is appealing.

Any feedback? Opinions?

Morgan

 

[TravellingGuy]

I find it more annoying then appealing.

 

[xarir]

I like having the option to surf into either. Flash is cool, but it can be annoying.

One thing for sure - NO SOUND! Nothing more annoying that surfing in and all of a sudden being hit with loud music or sound effects. If sound is necessary, it should be off with an option of turning it on.

 

[Morgan Ellis]

I've added teeny sound effects to some mouse over buttons, but that's about it. I hate getting 'entry page sound shock', personally. A few sites almost blew my speakers off of the desk.

-- Morgan

 

[pineappleguy]

Since I will never have anything faster than dial-up (some locations will NEVER have DSL or cable) I don't visit sites that take a long time to load. That's just me. The webmaster/business has to decide how broad they want their audience to be.

 

[pblues]

Flash is a waste of badwith..

 

[BigBob]

Flash is nice though, get cable...

 

[Arfur]

Flash websites are like clip art in powerpoint presentations. Initially amusing, but ultimately profoundly boring.

 

[Mufflicker]

I have a dial up connection and use a non windows OS. I find flash a large annoyance, unless there is a very definite reason for it. I've only let a flash intro run maybe once on purpose just to see if I was missing anything, I wasn't.

 

[notdedyet]

I also use a nonwincrap OS and therefore there is no possibility of viewing any flash content - thank gawd !!
I loathe the very idea of placing style over content.

Just give us the info and links to individual pictures - waiting for 35 embedded objects to load on dialup is torture.

 

[marvin]

I vote for HTML

There are a couple of useful features in flash that I have noticed and, true to what has already been stated, these are features that deal with graphical display. For example, maps and technology data. For search purposes, navigation and introduction, Flash is a complete waste of time and bandwidth.

A solid rule to stick with in web design is that providing the information quickly and clearly is paramount. A user should not have to think about how to find the information (navigation) and he/she should not be delayed from finding the information (introduction). For these purposes Flash does not add anything.

As a number of respondents have commented, Flash intros are usually skipped and they don't actually provide any useful information. As for navigation, that seems to be rather tricky in Flash. I have seen a few sites where the logic of navigation just frustrates the user. There's a strip club that comes to mind. They use Flash for navigation.

As for the option of Flash/HTML, that seems to be like the old frames/no frames option offered by some. As far as I'm concerned, go with either one or the other. Invariably, there are huge differences in the amount of work put into the site and one or the other versions (most likely the HTML version) will suffer for it. Again, I've seen this done a few times.

 

[oldjones]

Flush Flash!

My 2¢ is anti-Flash and Java because so few sites use them effectively. If you imagine you're visiting the site for the third or fourth time and condemned to wait for the animation—which was only barely cute, and that only once—you'll want it a lot less.
Think of all the ugly buildings you've visited—betcha they looked good in the drawings. Don't be suckered into buying a site that way: 'cause it looked so damn slick on the webweeny's laptop that one time you saw it. Demand real world repeats and apply all the impatience and disinterest you've got. You'll still be way more receptive than Joe Surfer.
I have a high speed connection, and even straight HTML pages load slower than I want. The sites, and the businesses, that slow me back down to dial-up speeds never get a return visit. Are you reading this BP?