| With the high percentage of internet users on | | | | violate my personal right to load a website |
| broadband internet connections, we're seeing an | | | | without being yelled at, sung to, or spoken to. If I |
| increasing trend toward more motion-oriented, | | | | open a web page, it should be silent, until i give it |
| flash-based websites. While utilizing flash and | | | | permission to speak (yes, this applies to non-flash |
| motion in websites is not in itself a bad thing, | | | | websites as well, but is more prevalent on flash |
| 100% flash sites are just irresponsible. Neither | | | | websites). |
| Google, nor any other search engine can read or | | | | I'm impatient, and pages often take too long to |
| index their content (really a big deal for a | | | | display for the sake of loading transitions, |
| website). While there are a very small number of | | | | animations and other flashy wiz-bang effects. |
| really well done, usable, bookmarkable, navigable | | | | When I visit a website, i go to find information. I |
| flash websites out there, the vast majority of | | | | expect to find this information quickly, easily, and |
| 100% flash websites on the web suffer from the | | | | in silence. Yes, i still appreciate a nice-looking |
| deficiencies I'll be outlining below. | | | | website, but not at the expense of a long wait, |
| SEO | | | | hurt ears, and a frustrated web-browsing |
| With a 100% flash website, there is virtually zero | | | | experience. |
| content that the search engines can crawl and | | | | Wrapping Up |
| index. Even if you have lots of text and valuable | | | | A flash site is great from a purely design |
| content rendered through flash, that is worthless | | | | standpoint, but it might as well not even be a |
| for the robots that crawl your website. Sure, you | | | | website, as it forfeits many of the reasons |
| can add a title, description, and keywords to the | | | | websites even exist. |
| meta tags of your website, but without page | | | | The majority of these sites can't: |
| content, those alone are not very valuable. Any | | | | - be searched by search engines |
| way you slice it, having plain, HTML text on your | | | | - have interior pages bookmarked |
| website for the content portions is the best way | | | | - be viewed by users who don't have flash |
| to guarantee that search robots can crawl, index, | | | | - allow emailing of unique inside URLs |
| and understand your site's content. | | | | - allow a user to go "back" or "forward" |
| Usability | | | | The next time you consider building a flashy |
| As my professional focus is on usability and user | | | | website, make sure to remember these SEO and |
| interaction, I'm especially annoyed by the way | | | | usability considerations. By integrating flash for |
| 100% flash sites essentially 'break' the way users | | | | your motion components and HTML text for your |
| expect a website to work. You can't go back | | | | valuable page content, you can provide the |
| with your browser's back button, you can't | | | | dynamic experience you want while preserving |
| bookmark various pages and you can't email a | | | | SEO and usability excellence. |
| unique URL to a specific page. Flash websites also | | | | |