Should I Create a Slick Flash Introduction?

Macromedia Flash is a powerful program for creating lightening fast animations, creative buttons, and powerful web pages. However, there is a trend to create a "gee wiz", "slick" Flash introduction before users can gain access to a web site.

Like the "splash screens" that used to display before users surfed to a site's main web pages, there is controversy surrounding the Flash intro, as well as sites that are created exclusively from Flash. An article posted to the ZDNet Developer Pages by Mr. Jakob Nielsen argues that 99% of the sites that use Flash are bad.

He argues that "splash pages were an early sin of abusive Web design. However, we're now seeing the rise of Flash intros that have the same obnoxious effect: They delay users' ability to get what they came for. On the upside, most Flash intros feature a "skip intro" button. However, their very existence encourages design abuse in several ways."

This design abuse includes:

• Gratuitous Animation
• Decrease of User Control
• Nonstandard Navigation
• Breaks the "Rules" of Fundamental Web Design
• Distracts from a Sites Core Values

Tothweb believes that Flash is a very powerful tool to enhance a web site. However, when you visited this site, you were not bombarded by the Flash intro. Tothweb has an electronic business card that is built entirely in Flash, but we don't start your web experience with a Flash movie and a hip hop soundtrack. (Or did we? Go back and play with the rolling tile Flash Movie for a while...)

Many sites we design utilize Flash, and some sites are completely composed of Flash elements. While we agree with many of the points of Mr. Nielsen's article we believe that Flash has its purpose. It has an immense "WOW" factor that is popular with teens and young adults. It works very well for sites targeting that audience, as well as an eLearning tool for creating fantastic educational multimedia.

Whether or not your site should have a Flash intro or a complete Flash site is up to you, but you should carefully examine your target audience and determine if you are willing to "break the rules" in order to increase your "WOW" factor.