Is there a happy medium as far as using flash? I am trying to design my website and I find that I'm torn between just doing a standard website and one with flash. Sometimes if everything is moving around on a site, i get irritated having to wait every time i click on a link for the page to load because of all the flash images and stuff. But on the other hand, i like the cutting edge feel it can give a site. For example, jlpevents.co.uk is a site i like aesthetically and want to sort of model my site after (not exactly the same but with a similar type of look). But it sort of annoys me the way things move around when you rollover a link and how there's like three different ways that every page loads. But it looks sleek and sophisticated. Can you achieve that same sleek sophistication without using flash? What are the ups and down to both types? Thoughts?
Well if you can do it like this then use flash. Nah, seriously do what your comfortable with, or what the client asks you to use. If you do it in flash and it takes a while to load, i'm not going to wait unless I really want to see the site.
same sleek sophistication without using flash ..> well perhaps not the same, but the same LEVEL of sophistication, yes you can. why don't you look up "css gallery" on google, and go through what you find, so you have a better idea of how well non-flash websites are designed..
Look cloosely at jlpevents. They use Flash, but mostly for timing. The same site could be built with CSS alone plus Javascript to slow things down (the loading, the menu changing on hover). Their site looks great because it's simple. It's not "Flashy flashitty flash flash." One thing you can't do with Flash (well, actually you can but it's a huge pain in the butt to figure it out) is make it accessible. I didn't check but if jlpevents is smart, there's code behind that Flash with all their text and menus so there's also a site for those without Flash, and the blind etc (there's some way to convert the text in Flash to something worth listening to in a screen reader but I dunno what or how). Also keep in mind if you want the site spidered, can bots see Flash? They can read the text behind it of course, but if there are no links it can click on for instance, it cannot go through the rest of the site.
Flash for anything other than videos or games to me is not worth the wasted bandwidth, annoyance, bloated code, etc, etc, etc. Flash banners? HELL NO. Flash menu's? EVEN WORSE. But then, I browse with plugins disabled most of the time, so I never even see the flash on most pages. (I have it turned on for youtube and... that's about it)
First of all, if you want site like jlpevents.co.uk than you probably MUST use flash. Anyway you have to make decision regarding what kind of visitors do you want to have. If you are not sure you can develop both flash and html/css version and let visitor to choose on index page where to go. I agree with deadshadow about menus.
Which IMHO is a "and why the **** would you WANT a site like that?" - 30 seconds before you can even use the menus on BROADBAND, goofy animations that take even more time for transitions or even to show content... I get the same reaction to that I get with the goofy desktop animated crap in these so called 'modern' operating systems. "For **** SAKE, JUST SHOW ME THE DAMNED CONTENT!!!" But that could just be that I'm sick of having a core 2 duo deliver the UI responsiveness of a AMD 386/40.