Advantages and Disadvantage of Using Flash

The author of this article does not have anything deep against Flash. They just feel that that space could be better used in other ways. Here are some of the disadvantages they suggest come with developing a flash introduction for your web site:

“- Increase in file size of the homepage
This is one of the important disadvantages of using Flash intros on your web site - it increases the time the homepage takes to load. I don’t think you will create a Flash intro that has only vector objects. There would definitely be images (raster graphics). This increases the file size of the .swf file which in turn increases the total time taken for the homepage to load fully. A greater offence, is embedded graphics and images that are not optimized or publishing the Flash movie with the lowest compression for images.
Expecting the visitor to first wait while the Flash intro loads and then expecting them to read your animated sales pitches - well, that’s too much of expectation from your time conscious visitors. The question you need to ask is, would you wait for a Flash intro to load on a web site and would you indeed go through text and be enthralled by the images in the intro? I don’t think so!

-Music and sound files in the Flash intro
Music and sound on web sites has been one of my pet-peeves. I am an avid music fan - in fact, I believe that that I listen, therefore I am. But I want to listen what I like and not what is forced onto me. Also, music and sound files embedded in Flash movies increase their file sizes which in turn increases the download time.”

Read the full article at Web Developer Notes and read the rest of the pro’s and con’s of flash, as well as find some resources to develop your Flash into something appealing.