Convincing a client to use flash

programming flash
1

I have a client who is leary about incorporating Flash into his existing site. Can anyone provide some statistical data as to the percentage of the internet users that have the plugin? Also, can anyone provide me with some pros and cons as to why flash should be used?

Thanks in advance.

2

What does the company do? How big is the site going to be?

3

In March 2004, NPD Research, the parent company of MediaMetrix, conducted a study to determine what percentage of Web browsers have Macromedia Flash preinstalled. The results show that 98.0% of Web users can experience Macromedia Flash content without having to download and install a player.
http://www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html

4

The company sells kids carpets and rugs. Their primary audience is adult women (mothers, decision makers for children).

5

I’m just wondering what your reasons are for wanting to do the site in flash, other than just wanting to do a site in flash.

If the concern of your client is just that not everyone has flash, then we see above that concern is unwarranted.

6

in short… flash is the most widely installed player for viewing online content. If flash is incorporated into this site then business will definatly pick up.

7

The results show that 98.0% of Web users can experience Macromedia Flash content without having to download and install a player.
http://www.macromedia.com/software/...enetration.html

Their number is misleading. Its not that 90% of people have Flash installed, its that 90% of people do not need to download Flash to install it, meaning that 90% of people have Flash Player somewhere, either installed or uninstalled on their computer. Im sure they went with this number, as opposed to the actual precentage of people who have Flash installed, which is probably far lower.

Regradless, as long as the Flash is done professionally, and it doesn’t come off as a newbie design, then you should be cool…

8

As a designer for an SEM firm, I’d suggest minimalizing the flash you add to the site. Keep it simple – navigation and a few splash elements here or there. Search engines and other web-based spiders cannot crawl a SWF, so it could hurt business if too much of the site is rebuilt in Flash – since it won’t get decent search engine rankings.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE FLASH. But if they’re an online merchant, they’ve got a lot of competition and search rankings are going to matter somewhere down the road.

9

Majeye, thanks for the heads up on the percentage. The client wants to add some components done in Flash, but still had reservations regarding the ability to view them, even if the number of those that wouldn’t be able to is low.

I used a Behavior I got from Macromedia to do the detection and then redirected them if the palyer wasn’t on their machine.

Is there a way to modify this behavior so that I can make it for only swapping out content instead of redirecting the viewer to a non-flash url?