Overuse of Flash

[templates911]

It seems these days that people are using flash more and more everyday. Sure it is a good thing but too much of it isn't. Theres several reasons why below:

- Long Loading Time (for people without broadband)
- content issues (cannot put dynamic content in it easily)

If you know of anymore reasons why flash is used to much and why it shouldn't be used as much as it. Or You think flash is a good tool and should be used everywhere. Post your comments.

[cfhosting]

Flash can be good, and can be bad, depending on whose hands it's in.

For example...

http://www.korn.com - good use of flash

and we all know the bad examples.... 1 meg flash files, long loading time, mystery meat buttons that you dont know what happens when you click them...

[Pegasus]

Flash requires a special plug-in, just like Shockwave.

Flash can be annoying loud, like talking in allcaps or the "blink" command in HTML.

Flash images can choke a browser to the point where it crashes.

Peg

[fredricknish]

We have had a lot of discussion abt this topic earlier - http://www.htmlforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=12994

[goody974]

In my view, it gives people the opportunity to Over design a website... Sometimes, in fact most times, it should be just enough and no more.

But with flash, you find that people want to show off the fact that they can produce these fantastic animations with bits flying here there and everywhere but completely miss the point of the website. Hence, overdone design.

My 10pence worth.
Goody :)

[benjamin77]

I think flash and its clones will be more nad more prevelant in the future.

Whether its good or bad depends on the designer. Is a huge flash intro appropiate for most sites ? No, at least I don't think so. It is ,i think, perfect for Web design firms homepages and entertainment sites.

The whole arguemnet about file size is moot, you can create rollovers and simple animations that actually weigh less in flash than you can with javascript. Most good flash sites give surfers a chance to choose which version of the site they view.

As for creating dynamic content , flash is made for that. Flash can link to asp, jsp, and xml documents and create dynamic content accordingly.

[cfhosting]

Until the majority of people have high-speed internet, I think flash should always be under 250k. There are many things I have seen in flash that could have been done in something else and be a lot smaller in size, I guess it just depends on what your doing. Plain old HTML layouts work for me.

[98svt]

I was always a flash fan. Everything I did or made was with flash. But it does get boring after awhile. Now I use flash to add to my html sites.

Mike

[Mage]

Flash is a wonderfull tool on the internet.. if used wisley! I like web pages with flash, but only where it is used in small amounts, ie, just a flash title or something. Many sites over use flash, and I dont want to wait for them to load, so I usually leave the site and leave. Web pages which allow you to use flash or not are good though! I was working on a flash intro and navigation for my site a while ago, but it was just too large a file. Maby some day I will make a nice simple nav for my web page though :)

[eggsinWisconsin]

Originally posted by goody974
In my view, it gives people the opportunity to Over design a website... Sometimes, in fact most times, it should be just enough and no more.

But with flash, you find that people want to show off the fact that they can produce these fantastic animations with bits flying here there and everywhere but completely miss the point of the website. Hence, overdone design.

My 10pence worth.
Goody :)

...errr, 'ya mean like mine? ;)
http://www.the-verybest.com/

Hi'ya Mike!

[kdjoergensen]

Mike, great site.. I like the travelling cube

[eggsinWisconsin]

Thank you kdjoergensen

It was fun to make.

errr, sorry about the confusion...
I'm Larry.
I was saying hello to 98svt ;)

[bradwright]

I think we may all be generalising a little when we say that flash is overused, and that sites using flash "are too large" or are "over-designed".

It might be a little better to say that the use of any proprietary technology (Flash included) is appropriate when it is justified in a properly researched and considered business plan, and when aimed at the right audience. This is, of course, also a generalisation on my part, and while I, too, hate large flash intros (any time you see that "skip intro" button you know you're in for a download), in some cases they can be justified. It all depends on the audience and the purpose of the site.

For an example of Flash used well, check out http://nuthing.com, where a designer has created a flash/php engine that recreates Outlook on the web. And of course (hopefully) there'll always be a market for flash experimentation to keep us all inspired, from such pioneers as Yugo and Joshua Davis.

In short, Flash, like anything else, has it's place when the costs/benefits are properly measured and researched.

[blowndeadline]

Everything I create in flash is dial-up friendly. Since 80% of the world still uses a phone line, its better that way!

Mike

[montroze]

Here's a Kewl flash page, even if you select 'Skip' the mouseover's (at the top) blend in with the music and the voice is excellent.

flash (http://www.nextdefinition.com/#)

Click Enter