Oh, get over yourself World Eater. This isn’t the Pit so you’re completely out of line with the insult, and in any case Jinwicked was expressing an opinion, as requested by the OP. If you like Flash and are convinced you can design well in it, great. Now let the rest of us point out how unusual it is to see people who can design subtly and effectively using Flash.
Perhaps my response was unwarranted, however it seemed a bit out of line to throw my words right back at me, and thats what ticked me off. Although part of the OP asked if Flash is the best medium to work in, the majority of his post has been over looked. Remember Flash is a tool, and the OP was inquiring about what else it’s capable of, and where to learn more about it, not neccessarily design ethics, which we’ve beaten like a dead horse in this thread. I’ll remember also, that you’re opinions carry as much weight as mine. Carry on.
Check out Webmonkey for some basic Flash tutorials.
I’m not into doing stuff I don’t morally agree with just for money. :mad:
Flash sites don’t use alt tags the way regular HTML does, and neither do they work in things like text browsers. By desiging a site with nothing but Flash and no HTML alternative (HTML is a standard; Flash is not) you’re shutting out blind people as well as the myriad others who choose to use text or older browsers for whatever reason. I design my sites to be the most compatible with the most browsers and I adhere to HTML standards for accessibility (making sure there are alt tags on all my images, etc.)
Maybe I am an idiot. If all you want is some vapid eye-candy (that could easily be done in a less-annoying manner with HTML), keep making those Flash sites. But to put valuable content in a non-standard only format that requires the downloading of extra software to view is, IMO, truly the idiotic thing to do. Alienating a portion of your site’s visitors is never a good thing.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
For the record, I have seen Flash used as an excellent tool for posting cartoons, movies, and other multimedia content – but this is usually placed within an HTML page. I have never, ever, seen an all-Flash site that I didn’t leave within thirty seconds in either frustration or disgust. I’d like to see the numbers of people who actually sit through all those dumb intros. I have broadband and I still think they’re a useless waste of bandwidth.
Like most things it comes down to your audience.
If you are attempting to present information, particularly business or public service, then Flash is hugely inappropriate. It’s hard to save bookmarks when links are animated using Flash. It’s hard to print Flash-only pages. You can’t select and copy text easily in Flash animations. You can’t control its accessibility (font size and colour, for example). It takes a long time to download on a dialup modem, and requires users to download and install software to view your site (I have Flash installed, but even then I see sites that need me to upgrade it–sorry, I’m paying by the minute for this dialup and I am not interested).
On the other hand, if you’re trying to demonstrate your graphic design skills, or are designing a website to showcase the latest in design (or, basically, any site where the appearance is as important than the content) then Flash may be the way to go. My friend is a senior web designer (on the graphics side) and has a brilliant Flash-only CV website listing his background. It’s subtle, not bloated in size and suits his target audience.
The point is that I believe–and it sounds like Jinwicked does too–that Flash is currently used inappropriately far too often. A Flash-based intro page offers me nothing at all, and is as pointless as an HTML splash page often is. I am not a diehard in the structure vs presentation debate, and I appreciate attractive design, but lately too many sites that should be focusing on presenting their content usefully are too busy with Flash to realise it.
I’ve created quite a few sites, and personally I too would balk at a Flash only site. (Although I have seen this done well, mainly in resume sites).
Flash is a lovely tool for creating some very impressive animations, navigation or otherwise. It can be very useful for streaming media, and the fact it is vector based graphics can actually improve the speed of some animations.
But a lot of similar effects can be achieved by using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and DHTML (Dynamic HTML).
The best way to find out what sort of stuff Flash can do is to go check out the Macromedia home page - http://www.macromedia.com - as Flash MX has just been released with some new features.
As jinwicked pointed out, Flash is NOT a standard, although browsers will start to support Flash as standard, you need to remember that not everyone will have the latest plug-in, and if you do need to redirect them to macromedia, you do run the risk of loosing that “viewer”.
[sub](People that use flash without providing a link to the plug-in are just beyond evil).[/sub]
Be aware of your file sizes and download times. People get bored very quickly. Also, do try to provide an HTML alternative.
(You can do things like embed real player to provide streaming media).
Personally I like Flash, but only in small doses.
I completely agree with the good Doctor but I am more radical. To me Flash is 99.9% evil.
There are some valid uses for Flash but never as a substitute for HTML/CSS - not to mention you can do some extremely nifty things with CSS that is not possible with Flash - because Flash completely screws up navigation. Is that a link? Why can’t I use the Back button? Etc. Etc.
For example, a visual demonstration of chemical reactions on the molecular level can be a valid application of Flash.
If you want to get a really good grasp of Flash, I’ve found that a great tutorial series of books are the Visual QuickStart guides. Their tutorials tend to be almost as thorough as the manufacturers’ and often are easier to understand, even if you have little computer experience, and are substantially cheaper.
It includes all the trick (like encouraging you to use vector images rather than bitmaps for faster download time), and since the books are a bit more independent than the Macromedia tutorials, they sometimes helpful hints on getting around defficiencies in the software.
Be sure though, to read up on the repercussions of Flash, not only what you see above, but also as far as how Flash can affect search engine ranking (remember, the best search engines look for relevent content – your Flash file may contain heaps of content, but the search engine may only be able to see “MyFlashFile.swf” – which doesn’t look particularly rich in content, thus your search engine ranking can be affected.)
Have fun in any case, but always be mindful of your site’s target audience and how you will affect their use of your site.
‘I disagree with the 99.9% of the time Flash sucks’ people. Unless you’re talking about all-Flash sites, which yes are very silly. But proper placement of Flash within a site is fine, with some caveats
[ul]
[li]tell a visitor they are about to enter a Flash piece[/li][li]do not usurp the normal navigation of the site[/li][li]still must be designed well[/li][li]if it’s even a remotely large file, let people know expected download time beforehand[/li][li]skip and exit available[/li][li]makes sense within the overall context of the site[/li][li]etc.[/li][/ul]
My not-so-flashy .02
I’ll jump on the bandwagon and agree that, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, Flash-based websites are annoying and off-putting. The Back button doesn’t work, you can’t bookmark subpages, you can’t really print, and so on. Flash is fine for specific limited uses, but it’s a terrible choice for a regular ol’ website.
Oh, and World Eater, you’re way out of line.
Tone it down, people. IMHO is a safe haven for those who wish to give their opinions without fear of confrontation-toleration is the watchword here.
World Eater, try to watch your language from now on.