To Flash or not to Flash
Macromedia Flash is simultaneously the best tool on the internet and yet one of the most hated internet experiences. Why is this and how is it possible?
The trouble with Flash is not Flash
Flash is not the problem. Flash is not what people dislike about web sites that contain Flash. What people dislike is the way in which Flash is often used.
Take any web site that makes use of lots of animated banner advertisments. These adverts could be Flash or animated gif files. Either way they will be disliked by visitors to the site as they seldom are the reason that the visitor came to the site. Furthermore, they add to the filesize of the page and so slow things down, and just get on visitors nerves.
Another example is the pointless Flash movie that visitors are often forced to endure before they can view a site.
We are a "Flash" company
Most of the work we do at Right Click Productions involves the use of Flash in some way to either enhance the project or quite simply to make the project possible. However, if you take a look around this page (and in fact the whole site) you will not see unnecessary use of Flash. We know when to use Flash, but more importantly, we know when not to use it! We do not use Flash simply because we can, we will only use it if we believe it to be justified.
Flash gets Flasher
The latest generation of Flash and the projects it makes possible are incredible. More and more, we are finding that we are in fact using Flash for most, if not the whole of a web design project. (However, we still do not inflict Flash banner ads or unnecessary "pre-show" movies). The tactile and highly interactive environments that can be created within Flash are beyond any other internet technology.
Take a look at our Virtual Tours. These Web sites (and the CD and DVD versions) are completely created using Flash technology (with the exception of the set top DVD video content on our hybrid DVD ROM / DVD video discs). The ability to manipulate video from within Flash is opening up new possibilities all the time. The new mobile internet market particularly benefits from Flash video due to it's incredibly efficient yet high quality compression.
NOTE:-Also, almost every PC in the world has some form of Flash player already installed, and for those few that do not (or those that need to upgrade to the latest version), the free download for the Flash player is completed in a matter of seconds even over a 56k dial-up connection. Once the player is installed, Flash movies play seamlessly inside of the browser and are firewall friendly. These are important points as some media players require lengthy downloads, and even once installed can trigger alsort of firewall alerts and are particularly prone to warnings from Windows XP Service Pack 2. Many applications written using other forms of web media became annoying to the point of being unuseable overnight when Microsoft issued Service Pack 2 with it's new security measures. |
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