Designing Flash Websites: Pros and Cons - Pros of Flash Websites
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The most apparent benefit to using Flash on a website is that it makes the website appear "flashy." The animation, bright colors, and smooth curves that are easy to develop and execute well with Flash will lend a website the appearance of extreme professionalism and attractiveness. Visitors to the website cannot help but to be drawn in by the appealing looks of the graphics.
The specific graphics provided by Flash are particularly well suited to artistic or creative websites. For instance, DJs and artists are very well known for making exclusive use of Flash to develop their websites. In fact, if a similar type of individual or organization develops a website that is not made with Flash, it has a tendency to stand out in a negative fashion because it does not look as creative or attractive.
Even when an entire website is not developed with Flash, a very common (smaller) application for Flash is a website's graphic buttons. Users have come to expect some minimum amount of animation when they interact with a website's buttons. A pretty good way to make a really snazzy button is by using Flash to create a complex animation that will really impress the viewer. Although this is a more difficult method of achieving button animation, it does have a nicer effect.
Flash is an excellent system to use when a website requires a high degree of interaction. The types of interactions are highly variable, and some are better suited to Flash than others. For instance, online games are a great use of Flash. The bright colors and constant interactions and animations well-suited to Flash also lend themselves quite well to online games.
More serious applications could include live database systems or content management systems. Although Flash has traditionally not worked well with complex database or file structures, the more recent versions of Flash have come a long way in improving the viability of using Flash to develop complicated systems.
One often-overlooked advantage of Flash is that it provides an additional layer of security. Flash must be compiled to be viewed on a website, and therefore no one can view the code of the Flash item without decompiling the file. Decompilers do exist, but they are notoriously of poor quality. Anyone that is looking to take any images or videos off of your website will have to work that much harder just to get to whatever they are looking for.
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