Flash Design

Flash Design is the skill of manipulating images and content using Adobe Flash and animating them to form extremely impressive presentations or movies in their own right. Using Flash to re-inforce your message can be a great way of keeping visitors on your site, or even driving new traffic. Sometimes using a well considered animation rather than a flat image is the only way to really get your point accross.

Flash Development

Flash is not just a visual application, it can used to develop complex web and desktop based applications. It is especially effective in developing games, viral campaigns and content managed presentations or web based magazines.

When not to use Flash

Although Flash can be used for delivering all your web content it’s not recommended. The primary reason for this is that Search Engines cannot spider Flash content, so it remains invisible and is not taken into account in search results. There are of course exceptions to this, such as rich media viral campaigns, however we would also suggest that the content was backed up by well formed HTML content so that Search Engines can also digest it. In the main part Flash is invisible to search engines. If you are of any doubt then look at a Flash site using a text browser like Lynx.

One of the most requested uses of Flash, and one of the biggest ‘no nos’, when is the Flash splash screen. The opening intro animation which then leads you through to the main site. This was pre-dominantly used during the 1990’s and early 2000’s but should be avoided at all costs. If you take into consideration what has been said above about Flash and search engines then the ’splash screen’ provides a barrier to search engines and can completely scupper your SEO efforts. Don’t do it!

Flash summary

Flash can manipulate vector and raster graphics, and supports bi-directional streaming of audio and video. It contains a scripting language called ActionScript. Several software products, systems, and devices are able to create or display Flash content, including Adobe Flash Player, which is available free for most common web browsers, some mobile phones and for other electronic devices (using Flash Lite). The Adobe Flash Professional multimedia authoring program is used to create content for the Adobe Engagement Platform, such as web applications, games and movies, and content for mobile phones and other embedded devices.

Amongst the standard text content which the system manages, each track from the Ringtagz service also has a playable mp3 sample and simple call-to-action offering.

Have a look for yourselves on www.orange2.ringtagz.co.uk

• Display of TV adverts and movie bumpers
• Message board function to allow user feedback
• Lead generation and management of campaign business nominations
• Display of case studies and photography from first adverts

There was also a strong requirement for a quick turnaround on the site. In total the site (which is fully content managed and has a number of bespoke features) was designed and built within a 3-4 week period.

The resulting design and finished site ticked all the boxes. It’s fully content managed and nicely organised with the six company channels forming the top level of the site’s structure.

Since its inception, the site has been a real success story, adding a new channel to Red’s marketing strategy and  enhancing an already prestigious image.

www.redconsultancy.com

Empire Interactive commissioned Hutchhouse to design and build the site with a brief to really liven things up! The site is split between the two gaming platforms (Xbox & PSP) and is localised into 6 languages. The Xbox version of the site is a feature packed Flash web site with animated… well… everything. It features video, music, screenshots, competitions,explosions, drivers… oh, and cars!

The Head On site is more subdued – it’s HTML with a splash of Flash and 3D animation, but fulfills the brief all the same, jam packed with features and a slick Ajax interface to prevent repetitive reloading of rich content. The brief also entailed the design and management of a full banner campaign for both releases. These banners included video MPUs and interactive leaderboards complete with competition entry.