Flash or No Flash?

Many people, when having a website designed for the first time, may consider having their website done entirely in flash. This can cause many problems. Firstly, there is still some dispute as to the amount of people on the internet that can actually see flash content...

"According to Macromedia, 93% of internet users are able to view Flash - in reality there is a difference between having the ability and actually doing it. Older browsers do not support newer versions of Flash Player and some internet users are reluctant, or unsure how, to perform the necessary upgrades. As a consequence there are thought to be more like 65% of internet users who are able to view all Flash websites."
Source : Wight365 Magazine

Secondly, you really have to think about what it actually adds, content-wise, to your site.

A real-world analogy:

You go shopping and there are two shops next door to each other. One shop has a big video screen outside and you must watch the 30 second animation playing on it before you are allowed to enter the shop. The other shop has a completely open entrance with a clear layout plan of the store and all the goods inside.

While you may be tempted to stand and view the pretty animation once or twice in order to get in the first shop, it will soon become tedious. You will then appreciate how easy it is to use the second shop.

The same rules apply to web sites.

"About 99% of the time, the presence of Flash on a website constitutes a usability disease. Although there are rare occurrences of good Flash design (it even adds value on occasion), the use of Flash typically lowers usability. In most cases, we would be better off if these multimedia objects were removed.

Flash tends to degrade websites for three reasons: it encourages design abuse, it breaks with the Web's fundamental interaction principles, and it distracts attention from the site's core value."
Source : Useit.com

Thirdly, Search engines require content to decide where they rank a web site. Flash does not provide that content. Even though human visitors can read the words that appear in a Flash animation, search engines cannot.

The very first requirement for a good web site is search engine performance. The prettiest web site isn't much use if it's outside the top 10 or 20 results.

A site entirely made in Flash is more likely to have low ratings, if any, and without a good search engine ranking, you won't get any 'passing trade' and maybe not even the people who are trying to search you out specifically.

So, to summise...

Very few web sites can be effective entirely in flash. It's also difficult to optimize your web site for search engines when it's done exclusively in flash because search engines can't crawl flash pages. If you're going to use flash, I recommend using it to add to your web page not to be your web page.