Flash Design For Communications Experiences

For marketing communications efforts to be effective, the message has to be persuasive. Multimedia offers an experience as close as you can get to a real experience. Multimedia draws attention, illustrates meanings, creates and associates emotions - hence, offers persuasive experiences. 

Multimedia web sites generally have severe drawbacks such as browser incompatibilities, slow pages, and search engine incompatibilities. Hence, they often limit user access. Flash (TM) from Macromedia has been able to counteract many of these drawbacks. For example, Flash's vector generated graphics not only are beautiful but also reduce file size compared to bitmap-type files. It is thus not surprising that Flash has been able to almost fully penetrate the web even though it requires a plug-in.

Flash multimedia and graphics are used in several ways, each of them having advantages and risks:

• Entry pages to a web site

• Illustration and presentation movies 

• Design elements 

• Designs incorporating ActionScripting

Flash Entry Pages

The goal of Flash entry pages is to represent a company in its best light, the same way a stylish lobby does. They are often used by design firms to show off their design skills. There are two draw backs to using Flash for the entry page. First, Flash entry page files are large and result in long download times and a severe loss of visitors. Secondly, most search engines do not see the text on the flash site resulting in poor site positions.

Illustration and Presentation Movies

Vector graphics are ideal for creating and reusing symbols in a presentation. Hence, Flash presentations are ideal for technical illustrations. The large size of these files does not matter since the visitor is already visiting the site (if users abort the download, they are still on your site). Moreover, the Flash demonstrations can add valuable information. 

Design Elements  

Design elements include colors, fonts, strokes, shapes, etc. These elements or symbols can be adapted to represent anything you want. Flash lets you create, store and use symbols in a variety of forms. Hence, flash is ideal to create design elements. 

Also, vector-based Flash elements are much smaller in size than corresponding bitmap type graphics. The use of flash design elements can be seen in the graph at the top or throughout the Steiner Marketing web site. Steiner Marketing used only elements from a logo to create the different graphs. Steiner Marketing can so create design consistency and a brand image no matter what the context. 

Designs Incorporating ActionScripting

Design gets added functionality with Flash ActionScripts analogous to JavaScript. A multitude of effects can be achieved with them. It is not clear, however, if search engines are capable to read past ActionScripts, thus the use of ActionScripts is at this point not recommended for search engine optimized pages.

Get Your Questions Answered

If you have any questions about Flash design, give us a call or send us an email. We will be happy to answer your questions.

Other Web Marketing Guides from Steiner Marketing

• Defining web strategies

• Web graphics to support your content

• Meta Tag Generator

• Flash design for communications experiences

• Web site promotion and search engine positioning