Our rule of thumb when considering any Web site technology is how will
it advance the visitor toward the objective of the site. Whether the
site objective is entertainment, education or selling the use of flash
or any other technology should act as a conduit for the visitor, not a
barrier.
If the site is for entertainment, a flash intro may be part of the
entertainment and a flash site may make sense. Flash can be used to good
advantage for short tutorials or product demonstrations. But it is
depressing to me how many companies come to us with a site that has a
long flash intro that does nothing but aggravate their target visitors
and then ask us to spend their money promoting such a site.
For one client we created a parallel site of what we called search
engine ads that were pages the search engines could read and index.
These pages were not cloaked but were presented to the visitor who
clicked on the search engine listing as a kind of ad for what would be
found on the site with an invitation to click on the flash presentation
or click directly into the relevant area of the site.
Misuse of flash and other Web development techniques and technology is a
sign that the developer or site owner is not really thinking about the
site objective and leading the visitor toward a common goal; the
developer is caught up in his/her own skill and joy of creation or the
site owner is caught up in trying to impress.
--
Miki Dzugan
Rapport Online Inc
Now, that's ROI!
www.roi-web.com
Received on Fri Nov 07 2003 - 09:07:04 CST
