A Bad Use of Flash on Websites

I've never really been a fan of Flash components on websites, mostly because I've rarely seen them done well. When I'm browsing through a website, chances are I'm not there to admire a fancy splash page or watch images morph and glitter before my eyes. I'm there because I want information, or because I want something interesting to read, or because I want to see examples of someone's artwork, or because I want to buy something. In fact, I'll sooner return to a plain or even ugly site with lots of good reading material than to a site that's heavy on imagery and light on content.

Actually, there are cases where I won't likely to return to a Flash-loaded site even if it does have good content. To give you an example, I once came across an online gallery of handmade plushies. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the plushies themselves. They were very cute and appeared to be well made. But my ability to browse in order to see them all was crippled, because all the navigation was done in Flash. I have a fairly slow connection, and Flash components don't automatically load in the browser I use. Unfortunately, that site isn't the only one I've seen that forces you to download and use Flash just to browse.

Using Flash to make a website more attractive is one thing, but using Flash for things you need to see in order to use your site is going to isolate some of your visitors. They'll back away and miss out on what you have to offer.