Why isn’t this site built in Flash? – The cost of usable Flash.

If Flash is so darn good? Why isn’t this site “Flash 99% Good” built in Flash. Well the answer to that question is pretty simple. $$$ Money-mula-cash! Yep, that’s right for various reasons I’m going to explain why this site doesn’t use Flash. First off you would think that a site that “talks” about Flash Usability would be dripping with flash embed code all over the place… nope not here. Like many interactive designers I have learned that Flash has it’s place.

First off I don’t have the funds to run a almost non-profit site like this using Flash. As of today I have yet to find any affordable / easy to use content managment system for Flash. This site runs using WordPress a free and easy to use CMS for posting articles. I’ve looked at various Flash CMS systems and they all cost too much for the good ones… and are really hard to use for the low-end ones. One of my biggest problems with most Flash CMS systems is the fact that they are very ridgid in their structure. Typically users need to fit the design of the Flash to meet the CMS. (not good).

Another reason I don’t use Flash for this site is the fact that I couldn’t run Google Word ads on the site if it used all Flash. The Google Word ads generate just enough income to pay for the hosting of this site… so I can keep the thing running. Finally I have found that Flash places alot of road blocks to usability if you develop a whole site using just SWF’s.

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Case in point: I developed a site for a major company recently. Much like FI Road Runner the site was built 100% in Flash. Each page had text and pictures on it and users need to navigate back and forward through the project. This ment we had to create a complex system to manage the “browser” history .. so users could use the back and forward button in the browser. If I had created this project in pure html (Like I wanted to but the client wanted pure Flash for various reasons) I wouldn’t have had to spend days building “usability” features into the site. For instance.. not only did we need to build back in the back button, but we need to make links that users clicked on look “greyed” out so they knew what parts of the site they visited and what parts then didn’t visit. This again is built into the browser, we wouldn’t have had to do any special coding if the site was built in HTML.

My experience is that if you want to build a full Flash site, and make it usable.. be prepared to spend 40% more time building back in the typical usability behaviors of a normal HTML page.

So from my perspective it isn’t cost effective to build a “Full Flash Site” unless you have good reason or alot of money to do so. Don’t get me wrong you can build a vary usable Flash site… but it will cost you more than an HTML site.