Great design makes a site stand out from all the others. Presenting your content well builds trust in your site. One of the best ways to add pizzazz to your site is by using Adobe Flash (used to be Macromedia) along with your images and fancy layout. Flash is a technology that allows designers to animate, create movement, add functionality, and enhance the graphical experience. There are some guidelines to using Flash so it doesn't work against you.

Guidelines

• Consider Flash if you are pretty techie. There is a considerable learning curve. I would say to invest your time in an image editor and get good at that before jumping into flash. In Flash you create images that move and sit on a timeline like a movie. It can get complicated quickly and require some reading. If you are up to the challenge then you can do some pretty cool stuff.
• Use Flash for presentation. Use it for the graphical aspects but don't place text within Flash hoping it will be viewed in search engines. If you do, make sure that the text is duplicated on the same page. Search engines CANNOT currently read text from Flash pieces and can't give credit for valuable content.
• Use Flash sparingly. Flash pieces can be "heavy". Their file sizes can be large and require a long download time. In previous design articles we have talked about the importance of having a site that downloads quickly. Make sure your site downloads quickly around your flash piece and keep its file size as small as possible. Keep the overall page weight to under 100k if possible. These days many web pages are over that. If you are at 200k you are really heavy. The cool thing about Flash is that it can begin displaying the beginning of the presentation while the rest of it is downloading. Often a page's html and many images will download while the Flash piece starts. It will begin displaying and finish downloading while the user is using the site. They may never know that the Flash took time to download. Make sure your Flash doesn't hold up the downloading of the important content of the site.
• Use Flash to enhance but be careful to not over do it. Flash is best used as a graphics enhancement. Use it to fade images in and out. Use it to scroll through properties or community features. If done properly, Flash can be used for sound like a classy song. Flash can also be used for snazzy buttons. It is discouraged to use flash to add little sounds to your buttons (i.e. beep, boink, zap, flarp, etc.) Those little buttons get very annoying after their first use.
• Use flash to match the rest of your site. The main colors should match. The design should too.
• Use flash for special functionality. You can pull in data from reports and make graphs, create forms and buttons and send data, track clicks, etc. Make sure you know how to pass data already to a database or through html forms before attempting these projects.

Flash is a great presentation tool. If you are pretty techie and have a great designer's eye then you can do some amazing things. I have seen some fantastic sites out there. Remember, good content is king. Don't let the awe of Flash capability detract from your writing great content and you will have a great site.

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