Flash is a program that allows for slideshows, animation, and video to be incorporated into a website. Incorporating these features into a website can enhance the user experience if done correctly. Additionally, flash can make your website look slicker and more professional.

If you are going to incorporate flash into your website there are a few things to keep in mind. First, users’ internet speeds vary. You need to make sure to keep the flash file small so it will load quickly even for those users’ with a slow internet connection. A page that loads slowly will decrease a user’s experience. Since the point of using flash is to increase a user’s experience, a slow loading page which decreases a user’s experience will take away any benefit of using flash.

Second, even if the file is small and loads quickly, you need to be conscious of where you incorporate the flash in your website. You need to be careful when using flash on your home page/welcome page. When a user visits your website, they go there you see and read what is on your site. If a user is forced to wait for the flash intro to finish, the user may leave instead of waiting for the intro to finish. If you are going to have a flash intro (which I don’t recommend) you need to make sure to include a “skip intro” link so the user can get to your site without having to wait for the flash intro to end.

Lastly, when using flash, you need to make sure it accomplishes its goal. Before you use flash, you need to ask yourself why you are using flash. If you are using flash just to use flash, it is probably a bad idea. However, if you are using flash to get a point across, you need to make sure the use of flash is getting the point across. If it is not getting the point across you should get rid of it because now all the flash is doing is increasing the load time of the page which decreases a user’s experience.

While using flash correctly can increase a user’s experience, it can also produce certain disadvantages. These disadvantages are from an SEO prospective. The spiders that search engines send out to crawl and index pages can’t read flash. If your entire site is in flash, the spiders won’t be able to index any part of your site since they are not able to read it. Similarly, if your welcome page is in flash, the spider won’t be able to get past the home page and won’t be able to index any part of your site. Including a skip intro link will take care of this problem. The spiders will be able to read the text link and therefore will be able to follow it to the rest of your site. Once inside the site, the spider will be able to crawl and index the rest of your website (so long as it’s not flash).

Including slides shows and animation can certainly increase the user’s experience. However, one needs to make sure not to include too much. Over use of flash will make the pages load slowly and will decrease the user’s experience. Additionally, excessive use of flash will harm your site from an SEO point of view.

When designing a website, you can incorporate flash. Just make sure to use it appropriately.