Flash Websites

Does anyone know where I could get started to create a flash website? I dont

experience with web stuff at all but I am trying to start a business and I would

like to do a website.

With any website, start with deciding what you want the website to do for you, and then think about the content that gets it done. Design and tricks like Flash come after that.

 

If you are just trying to start out, and Flash isn't your thing, AND you really feel you need a Flash site, then it's best to hire a web designer to do it for you or buy a template from someone, e.g. livebooks.

I block Flash on principle to reduce risks of computer viruses. I don't think I'm alone. You may find other software that is safer for your viewers attracts more custom. Speed of a site is very important to keeping a user there. Get that right, with a good visual design and logical presentation, and your site will be more successful.

>>> Does anyone know where I could get started to create a flash website? I dont

experience with web stuff at all but I am trying to start a business and I would like to do a

website.

 

 

Might there be any community colleges nearby that have some classes/workshops?

 

BTW, I think Flash when wisely used is terrific. You can preload images while people are

viewing - making for a very snappy user experience. My site has galleries implemented

that way.

 

Don't worry about anti-flash people - more than likely they're not your audience.

I'm a web designer, and generally anti-flash. That said, I ended up concluding that for my own purposes I preferred flash for image galleries for the pre-load as well as right-click-disabling reasons. My upcoming (beta) site is html based with flash for the galleries. I actually used the same slideshow program used here at photo.net which is monoslideshow. But, I would not build an entire site in flash, I just don't enjoy developing with it compared to the universal acceptance of html and CSS.

Brad: I think it's painting with rather a broad brush to suggest that, for example, people who want to be able to use their web browser's BACK control aren't going to be in Victoria's audience.

 

Victoria: you need to ask yourself to whom you're trying to communicate, what sort of typical screen resolution, browser currency, and connection speed that demographic is likely to have, and so on. THOSE factors are going to determine whether you let Flash run your entire site, whether you stick with well-designed straight HTML that uses some well-considered Flash as embedded objects that won't kill your site if they don't work, or whether you want to essentially develop two versions of your site, to satisfy all visitors and platforms. You need to ask yourself how much you're going to depend on search engines like Google actually parsing words and phrases on your site (instead of missing those words, because they are pictures OF words in a Flash movie) in order to generate web traffic around the phrases that you think are important.

 

You need to hit the book store or talk to a web designer about the BUSINESS issues surrounding your choices and your web strategy (and that of your competition) before tackling a specific rendering technology.

I am against any software that allows me to be creative and affords my viewers an interesting perspective on my work. I am totally against anything beyond the mundane. I want to flow with the flow. I want my client and audience expectations not to exceed what I might provide.

 

I am running DOS 3.0, Wordperfect, and Lotus 123. please download these applications to view my new and very exciting work.

 

daniel taylor

>>> Brad: I think it's painting with rather a broad brush to suggest that, for example,

people who want to be able to use their web browser's BACK control aren't going to be in

Victoria's audience.

 

You're right. She may be targeting the 2% of computer users who don't use Flash. Probably

less when considering art and multimedia environments.

Daniel, I have a copy of dBase III+ you might be interested in plus I could probably hook you up a newer version of MS DOS and tons of batch files. All on 5.25 floppies of course.

Brad: I'm not talking about USING Flash, or whether one's browser will support it. I'm talking about people who end up spitting mad while trying to use familiar browser controls while looking through the gallery of a prospective (for example) wedding photographer, and wind up back on the Google search results page that got them to the web site in the first place... because the entire site is living in one big fat Flash file. Only a bit less annoying are the all-Flash galleries that send you sailing back out to a parent gallery page or worse simply because you want to step back to a prior image, and aren't clicking on the right nav image inside the Flash framework, but are just using your favorite keyboard shortcut to send your browser back one page. Your browser's navigation controls do not translate to moving within the actions of a Flash object, and that drives a lot of people crazy - especially people who are sifting through lots of sequential pages (like a portfolio).

 

You can't, possibly, suggest that you haven't seen average web users experiencing such ill-concieved sites in exactly that way. I don't care, at all, if someone wants to roll out a site that way. I just hate to see someone who is just setting out to represent a business online (and the OP, here, has said she's trying to start a business) with a web site that will be doing its level best to be difficult or slow to navigate, hostile to search engines, impossible to link into in a constructive way, or otherwise clumsy... all in the service of being able to use a $50 template they downloaded, and a sense of cosmetically keeping up with the Joneses, even if it actually doesn't help sell the services she wants to provide (or worse, simply annoys people).

 

Flash is fine when very carefully used in small doses, and likely to work on most browsers. But it's a really bad mistake to try to attract business or demonstrate your credibility as one with a site wholly or mostly crafted in Flash.

 

Incidentally, I consult in this area. Each month, I look at the crunched stats from millions of page views a wide range of web sites... small artists' organizations, large national retailers, medical practices, legal publishing companies, personal pages - a wide range of demographics, audience-wise. Ad-blockers that torpedo many embedded Flash objects often approach 15% of users. Out-of-date Flash players can often exceed 25% of visitors. The JavaScript needed to even fire up Flash objects under some circumstances is often shut down. Many Flash objects require extra keystrokes or mouseclicks to even be enabled in MSIE, because of litigation issues (I'm sure you followed that case). The point is: you cannot bank on 98% of potential brides surfing from work during their lunch hour being able to navigate a Flash-powered web site. I have corporate customers who block HTTP GETs of Flash content at the company firewall... for hundreds of users across their entire network. This is why I have my customers pay a lot of attention to stats once they start pulling in traffic to a new site. They can quickly see if - despite your own gut take on it - whether or not they really ARE showing blank panels in the middle of web browser to an appallingly large percentage of potential customers every day.

I've sat with numerous engagees, or whatever they are called, going through photographer sites. None of them seems particularly bothered by flash, or by the time it takes. To them, it's just one more time-consuming task, and they aren't looking at flash as a significant bother, it's just one more task they do. If I were going to do a wedding site, I would probably do a flash one. It's only webbies and photographers that seem bothered.

Wow, thanks for all the responses! I see some very good points from everyone on here, and some things that I should consider. Most of my business is sports photography at this point, I dont know if that makes a difference but I probably should have specified it. I want to create something where I have a homepage, contact info, pricing, possibly a portfolio, and then an area where people can go to password protected galleries to view images of their team. I am wondering after reading responses that maybe using some flash, as well as some html would be the way to go. That way not all of it is in flash.

Victoria, I advice you to not make the WHOLE site in flash. Make your menu in flash, the photo gallery in flash, but all that should be surrounded by solid html, because you want to be found on the web and a 100% flash site is rather invisible to Google. If I can make myself clearer, with a 100% flash site odds are people won't find your site even if they type "Victoria Harris" in Google.

 

So I advice you to hire a web designer, and to keep the costs low, check www.jumpeyecomponents.com. They make individual flash components (such as customizable flash image galleries) at a fair price. Good luck!

>>> I am wondering after reading responses that maybe using some flash, as well as some

html would be the way to go.

 

That's a great way to go, and as I mentioned above, what I do on my site. BTW, if you process

and manage your images with Adobe Lightroom, there's an included web gallery module called

SimpleViewer (designed by Airtight Interactive) that can quickly generate and export the

individual Flash galleries which you can than integrate within the rest of your HTML web site.

You can view my site for an example of one using html and css for the main body and content and flash for the galleries.

 

<a href="http://www.geneboaz.net">www.geneboaz.net</a>

I'll chime in with another negative for Flash. It sucks (for Web pages). It really does. Nowadays it's better to use proper standards like AJAX. Look into it. If it does what you want, give Flash the flick.

Once again, a programmer's view. Not what the users care about.

 

Where's your Ajax-driven web gallery?

Jeff, if you're replying to me:

 

1. My reply is as a user, not a programmer.

 

2. Flickr doesn't use Flash, nor does .Mac (for the most part). Here's hoping YouTube follows.

Anyone who talks about Ajax vs flash is a programmer. I don't know a single non-programmer internet user who would recognize the word Ajax except as cleanser. I didn't until I saw it a few weeks ago.

 

The normal user, not the ones who are into Ajax vs flash, don't care. They like flash, they like the presentation. I watch prospective brides and grooms, art lovers, and people bored working watching flash without complaining. None of them know what Ajax is, but they don't care. They watch the flash because it makes things interesting to them.

 

Who brought up flickr? Who brought up .mac? This was about flash. And where's your ajax-driven gallery?

Google has guidelines for Flash. The Flash SDK has tools to aid in making Flash search bot friendly.

 

People who use the web mostly for entertainment probably like Flash a lot. People who use the web mostly for research probably hate Flash as a time waster that just gets in their way like a spare changer or a telemarketer.

Web sites with flash should be legally abolished.

Karim, YouTube CAN'T follow. There are very few alternatives for streaming video on the web to Flash.

 

As a proffesional web developer, I have to say, Flash should only be used in sprinkles. Through the proper use of AJAX, I can make stuff that loads quicker than flash, and preloads the images better than Flash. That said, flash is still good for a few things. As stated above, video is darn near impossible in the current version of HTML. In the next version of HTML there are going to be <video> tags, so at that point it will be interesting to see if they work better than Flash.

 

My biggest problem with Flash is accesability issues. Text resizing, although possible, is very tricky to implement. And making a Flash site follow the guidelines for the disabled, forget it.

Are there any programs that I may be able to learn how to use so that I dont have to hire someone to do my site? My husband knows some HTML, we are just not very familiar to flash.

Just as I told you, you can download a customizable flash component from the internet. You don't have to know flash programming for that and your site should look quite professionally done.

<i>Web sites with flash should be legally abolished.</I><p>Are you suggesting that youtube should be abolished? Interesting. Loved the photos at your web site, by the way.