Useful Tips on Flash web site designing - Web Design Forum Graphic Design Site Templates Flash CSS Discussions

gaininfo · #1 07-19-2008, 12:29 PM

Flash web site design is very much in vogue, especially since the corporate takeover of Macromedia by Adobe.
Flash web sites use vector based graphics, in a continuous movie format. They can include sound, to make the website visit a richer and more absorbing experience. Studies have shown that this interactivity, greatly improves the visitor to customer conversion rate.

Tastefully designed Flash web site templates keep visitors interested and make them stay at your site longer.

The following few important factors might serve as a useful checklist if you are looking to design a Flash web site.

1. Take care of the time factor:
The more complex the presentation, the longer it will take to build. It is often a better idea to first develop your HTML site, get it on- line, and then work on the Flash additions later.
2. Create a bypass for the repeat visitor:
The situation of ‘getting bored’ can be avoided through a number of ways either by using a cookie that redirects a repeat user to a page without the opening presentation, or by letting the user choose when they want to see it.
3. Don’t overuse it:
Using Flash heavily in websites, whose overriding purpose is for convenient gathering of information, will have a counter-affect.
4. Check the load time
Load time of webpage should be kept minimum as much as possible

- Now “Google algorithm ability to index textual content in SWF files of all kinds is improved”, so this is good news for flash sites.

Hope this will be helpful to you. Any further suggestions are welcome.
Cheers!!!!

gaininfo · #2 08-08-2008, 12:16 PM

Hi all i am adding today- Tips to a smooth navigation...

In order to make every page of your site accessible, it’s essential to have certain navigational elements present in your site such as:

Home page:
A link back to your home page is a must. It should connect to all the other parts of the site. It helps to have a home page link throughout the site especially if someone has gone deep into your site, away from what they were looking for. They can then return to the home page and look again. Clicking on the main logo, usually located in the top left, should also return you to the home page.

Page jumps:
Page jumps are essential on all long pages. They are links to sections of a single page. Often, the visitor does not scroll very far down a page. A page jump at the start of a document acts as a table of contents, allowing readers to quickly access relevant sections.

Breadcrumb trail:
At times, a visitor feels lost in the site especially if he has arrived in your site through a search engine and has no idea where he is in relation to the rest of the site; then a breadcrumb trail really helps. It’s a row of links that shows how the site is structured at the top of the page as well as at the bottom.

Sitemap:
A site map deserves as much importance as a home page link and its link should be prominent.
Multi-tier navigation structure:
A Multi-tier navigation structure is ideal for complex or large web sites offering multiple solutions. It enables users to jump from one link to another without going through various unrelated pages.

Generally sites are organized on two levels - global and local. Global navigation helps visitor identify and move within the broad general categories. Local navigation goes down within one of the major sections of the site and takes the visitor towards a more specific location within the broad category.

A few pages of a small business site do not exhibit this problem. But when your site grows to 1,000 pages and offers multiple services, you need to plan on how to make it an interactive website and how to make visitors access the information they seek fast and easily. If they get lost deep within a site, they may give up entirely and you risk losing a potential customer. Therefore, build an efficient navigation system to get customers to information quickly and intuitively.

Sakari · #3 09-02-2008, 07:13 AM

Hi

You are right, time factor is the main point in the flash sites. All knows that flash sites are always taking much time than other site to open, so use the flash in your site little bit where you need.

I like your 3 and 4 point.

thanks