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Flash content can add an entirely new dimension to your website. It can enhance your written content by offering visual and audio materials that go along with it, but it can also be used in ways that have a negative impact on user experience. Here are some of the things to keep in mind when you're talking to your website designer about including Flash—or other multimedia elements—on your pages.
• Your Music Might Not Be Their Music
Be wary of putting music on your site. If you do want to include music on your pages, at least give your visitors the choice to turn it off and to reduce the volume. Some types of sites tend to have music on them and it doesn't always have the effect that the site owner envisioned. For example, photographer's sites tend to have music included on them that's intended to enhance the experience of looking at their galleries.
Keep in mind that the people who visit your site may not share your taste in music and, in fact, if they really dislike the music you've included and cannot turn it off, they may leave out of simple irritation. Leave it up to the visitor whether or not music plays while they're using your site and make sure the controls to turn it off are easy to understand and clearly visible.
• Loading Pages
Flash loading—or "splash"— pages can be interesting, but they can also test the patience of some users. If the intro takes a long time to load, your visitors may assume that your site is slow and just look somewhere else for the information they're after. If the intro doesn't really add anything to what they get out of the site, they're probably just going to get frustrated having to sit through it.
No matter how proud you are of the intro you thought up for your site, make sure your website designer includes an option to skip it for the user. Even if someone does sit through it and really enjoys the introduction the first time, keep in mind that they're not going to want to sit through it every time they visit the site and that they'll enjoy having a way to skip out of it when they come back.
• Keep it Appropriate
Good design—on the web and off—should not only be visually attractive but should fit the spirit of the site. For example, if you're running a site that has a lot of very detailed information and that needs to come off as credible and serious, putting too many flashy elements on it might detract from that image. Be sure to talk to your website designer about including Flash and other multimedia elements in ways that are appropriate for what you're trying to convey to the user.
If your site has an academic feel to it, for instance, you probably don't want to have overly flashy menus and background music. Any technology you use on your site, whether it's Flash or anything else, should enhance the user experience, not detract from or add unnecessary complexity to it. Good website designers will let you know if an idea you have is clichéd or if it's not likely to come off the way you think it will. They'll also be able to let you know if what you have in mind is likely to affect the performance of some user's computers.
Being creative is important to web design, but so is being practical. When you're adding any type of content to your site, be sure it has a purpose and, if it's something that not all users would likely appreciate, be sure to give them an option to skip it or to turn it off so you don’t' drive them away from your site altogether.
Matt DandurandAbout the Guest Author:
Matt Dandurand is the CEO of MediaContour.com, offering web design in Los Angeles, CA.