| 7 reasons to avoid Flash when designing a website | | | | verification is a tedious process as it requires waiting |
| Unfortunately, Flash technology is a poor choice for | | | | for data to appear in the reporting system – |
| most commercial web sites. A proprietary | | | | hours or days later. Flash does not provide referrer |
| technology, Flash breaks most web standards and | | | | information, making it very difficult to track |
| conventions. While Flash sites are generally beautiful | | | | navigation paths. |
| to look at, the fail to meet a number of minimum | | | | 3. Flash breaks web usability standards. |
| criteria for business-oriented websites. | | | | Flash sites might look great, but they start to fall |
| 1. Information embedded in Flash is often invisible to | | | | apart when visitors try to use them. Consider a site |
| search engines. | | | | for a professional services company. The site |
| Most Internet navigators begin a web session with a | | | | contains information about the company, its services, |
| search engine. Even when they know a domain | | | | case studies and contact information. It is clear that |
| name, they start with Google or a similar search | | | | the company invested a lot of time in planning and |
| engine. With all the possible confusion of .com, .net, | | | | developing their web site. The site deserves an |
| .eu, it’s better to trust Google to find the | | | | excellent rating for content and appearance. |
| “right choice”. As search engines are the | | | | * While navigating through the site, try to use the |
| gatekeepers to the Internet, it is imperative that | | | | browser back button. Unfortunately, it is disabled. |
| companies maximize their natural visibility in search | | | | * Try highlighting contact information to paste into |
| engines. | | | | your contact manger, such as Thunderbird or Outlook |
| Search engines work by scanning information on the | | | | – you cannot. |
| web, processing it, and retrieving the best match for | | | | * Try increasing the font size to make the text more |
| each user query. Search engines are fine-tuned to | | | | readable (Firefox: Ctrl +; IE 7: “View -> Text |
| process text, semantically wrapped in tags. The | | | | Size”. You cannot. |
| markup in hypertext markup language is our | | | | * Try bookmarking a page within the site (or deep |
| specification of a document title, headings, | | | | linking to a page from an external site). You cannot. |
| paragraphs and links – structural meaning which | | | | Keep in mind that deep linking, the ability to link to a |
| helps search engines place appropriate importance on | | | | specific page in a site, affects a site’s visibility in |
| each text element. | | | | search engines and the overall web ecosystem. |
| Information hidden in graphics formats, such as Flash, | | | | Ouch! These are all problems that could be avoided |
| is difficult, if not impossible, to find and process. While | | | | by using standard html and css instead of Flash. Sites |
| search engines such as Google try their best to | | | | that have these types of problems usually also have |
| extract links and textual content buried in Flash | | | | problems with web accessibility. |
| objects, the process is far from perfect. Sites | | | | There are (too) many examples of Flash designed |
| constructed completely in Flash often offer very little | | | | sites which present the same problems |
| textual information – consequently what | | | | 4. Lack of consistent cross platform support. |
| information a search engine does find ranks poorly. | | | | One of the keystones of the web is that a website |
| Even sites partially constructed using Flash often | | | | should work in any browser on any computer – it |
| “hide” their internal site links using Flash based | | | | is openness and standardization which has made the |
| site navigation. | | | | Internet universal. Flash breaks the basic tenets of |
| 2. Website reporting on Flash navigation is problematic | | | | web design. While most Internet users have Flash |
| and cumbersome. | | | | installed – they don’t necessarily have the |
| Web analytics systems help marketing professionals | | | | right version installed. Indeed version 8 wasn’t |
| evaluate website visitor behavior in and around a | | | | even released for the Linux platform, locking those |
| website, providing actionable information valuable in | | | | users out of sites developed for Flash 8 and 9 (Flash |
| improving a website’s business performance. | | | | 9 for Linux has finally been released, months after |
| Basic web analytics reporting tells marketers where | | | | the Windows version). |
| their visitors came from, the pages visited and where | | | | 5. Code embedding Flash objects doesn’t pass |
| in a site visitors abandon a site. One type of web | | | | w3c validation. |
| analytics reporting uses web server based data – | | | | The World Wide Web Consortium, the primary web |
| log files which track every page, image and download | | | | standards organization, provides a free tool to ensure |
| served to site visitors. A second type of reporting | | | | a page’s html is syntactically correct. While |
| system relies on JavaScript tags that need to be | | | | search engines and web browsers do tolerate bad |
| inserted in every site page and on every | | | | html code, a business oriented site usually wants to |
| downloadable object. While both types of web | | | | minimize the risk that an improperly coded page |
| analytics systems have advantages and | | | | won’t render correctly or will be rejected by a |
| disadvantages, Flash based websites present real | | | | search engine’s parser. Validation of pages |
| problems for both types of web analytics reporting | | | | removes this risk. |
| tools. | | | | Unfortunately, standard Flash object embedding in |
| Web server log based systems are able to track | | | | the current html version, xhtml, doesn’t validate |
| when a Flash object, typically a swf file, is viewed. | | | | correctly. |
| They are not able to track navigation within a Flash | | | | 6. Some users disable Flash to avoid flash based |
| object – so if a site is composed of one Flash | | | | advertising. |
| object which contains multiple site sections, the web | | | | Savvier web users have learned to disable Flash in |
| analytics system will see a swf download, but will | | | | web pages to avoid animated advertising and / or to |
| have no idea which parts of the site a visitor viewed | | | | improve page-loading times on dial-up connections. |
| nor where the visitor abandoned the site. | | | | Regardless of the reason, a disabled Flash website |
| JavaScript tag based solutions, such as Google | | | | looks much like this: |
| Analytics, rely on web developers inserting a small | | | | Browser with Flash disabled. |
| piece of JavaScript code in each page, usually in the | | | | Another reason to stick with html and css. |
| site header or footer. Most sites have a single shared | | | | 7. Website updates continually require Flash skills |
| header and footer meaning that the code just needs | | | | One characteristic better performing websites share |
| to be put in one file for an entire site. A basic | | | | in common is fresh content – they are continually |
| installation then takes less than 30 minutes from | | | | updated to reflect the latest company news and |
| account setup and configuration to page tagging. | | | | industry trends. Pure Flash and Flash navigation sites |
| As all or most of the navigation in a Flash based site | | | | constantly need to use a Flash designer every time |
| occurs within the Flash object, page tagging solutions | | | | new content needs to be integrated into the existing |
| require that each user action (such as clicking on a | | | | site. If this skill-set doesn’t exit in-house, site |
| button to view different “content”) be | | | | maintenance becomes needlessly complicated. |
| tagged with an ActionScript call to the web analytics | | | | So we’ve got a Flash based website. What |
| JavaScript code, providing a pseudo page name | | | | now? |
| which then appears as a virtual page in Web | | | | There are several strategies available for mitigating |
| Analytics reports. While this sounds complicated, the | | | | problems inherent in Flash usage. While a few have |
| Google Analytics on-line help system provides a good | | | | already been noted above, each situation presents its |
| example. | | | | own unique issues which need to be balanced based |
| In the real world, this approach breaks down very | | | | on business requirements and website development |
| quickly. Web analytics tagging is often an after | | | | resources. In all fairness, there are a few cases |
| thought. Flash ActionScript coding adds extra | | | | where judicious use of Flash may be appropriate. |
| implementation cost and complexity. Flash designer(s) | | | | I provide custom web site design, high-end web |
| are often unfamiliar with web analytics requirements | | | | development, feature reach ecommerce web sites, |
| and thus don’t consider Flash events tagging | | | | Search Engine Optimization and more. Visit Custom |
| requirements during site design. Implemented tag | | | | Website Design. |