The Benefits of Flash Website Design for Branding Your Business
Flash website design is cool, and many companies use flash in some capacity on their websites because it does several things to help promote a company's image, brand, professionalism, and relevance.- Flash website design shows professionalism - A site using flash efficiently will show a level of professionalism that goes beyond the static website page. It shows that the company cares about its online image, and when done right, actually helps retain users on the site longer, which helps branding of the company to users. In addition, a well designed flash website will often have some level of interactivity which users engage in. When the user is engaged, they are actively thinking, which helps to retain the company's name or brand in their mind for a longer period of time. If the interactivity is engaging enough, they might even want to tell others about it, which further promotes your company's image.
- Flash website design doesn't have to be a full on user experience to work. Any website with some level of subtle moving objects, moving images, text, rotating banners, etc. will be more engaging than a site with no moving content at all. This stimulates the users brain to think and engage the site visually, which helps your company's image and present you in a light that shows you are relevant and up-to-date with your online property. Using "elements" of flash in a website will boost your designs performance and will increase user retention.
- Flash website design allows for many custom applications to be built for your website which also keep users engaged and interested in the site. Custom apps can be used for all kinds of purposes, from demonstrating a product and how it works to gathering data from users about a product offering. In addition, flash video can be used for intros, product demos, product launches, and so much more.
Some Concerns with Flash Website Design You Need to Be Aware Of
There are some concerns with flash website design that you need to know about so you can make the best decision for your business in terms of online marketing and promotion.
- Flash website design isn't the best option to use for a site when Search Engine Optimization is the goal. In fact, it is not advisable at all. Search engine spiders and robots cannot read the content that is located within a flash site, at least not vary well. This limits the performance your site pages will have in search engine returns. It is possible to have a completely "flash" website and still do well with SEO, but it usually requires having some additional content pages within the site that the search engines can read and understand.
- It is important that flash website design for business doesn't become too complex or intricate. It may look cool, but it can become a real distraction for users. In fact, users might leave your site altogether because they can't find their way around, or because there are too many moving parts that it just overwhelms them and they can't concentrate on anything. This often happens when there is content to be read on a page, and that same page has a very noticeable moving object or area which continues to move once the page has loaded. This is very distracting to anyone trying to concentrate on reading the content. So avoiding too much flash is very advisable.
- While most people in the U.S. and many parts of the world are accessing your website on a broadband connection, there are still many other people who don't have that capability. Flash pages can be heavy, meaning they are large files that take a long time to download. This is a real consideration for users that don't have broadband, and even for users that do have it. Large flash files that take too long to download before someone can view the page are a real turn off, and many users are more likely to leave the site than wait for the page to load.
- It is becoming more rare, but there are still a good portion of computers out there that don't have flash installed in their browsers. This means people can't view your flash website design. If there is no html alternative, users will be turned away from your site and will not be able to view any of the content you have to offer. As mentioned, this is becoming more and more of a rarity, but there are still users who don't have flash capabilities on their machines. The best thing to do is to evaluate if your potential audience could be users without flash installed on their computers. If it is, then you might want to stay clear of using the technology on your site.
