Before You Build It

You own (downloaded) Flash… Congratulations!

I know you can build a cool site in flash and you’re practicing for the really awesome creative company job you’ll have later in life, but think practically about why you are using flash to build the site you are building.

I wouldn’t build a house out of those bottles filled with little boats just because I think they look “cool.” You build with the most appropriate tools and materials for the functions you need your site to perform.

I’ve seen several sites lately that were pretty much standard HTML layouts… a couple columns here and a nav up top… No crazy animations, no sick transitions with video and or AS… Why do it in flash then? All you accomplished was burying the site in the search engines.

Flash is a visual tool first. It is not a development tool first. I know some of you will disagree, but you’re wrong… accept it. There are massive sites like Adobe.com that use mostly flash and or flex, but be serious about who you are and who you’re building a site for. If you’re building a simple site for you brother, mother, church, school, girl you’re trying to get in the pants of… Use HTML when you’re doing a content driven site. Use flash when you’re doing a visual presentation site.