ArkiStan

I've used Adobe programs such as photoshop and illustator for the past 14-15 years, but I'm a complete newbie when it comes to web design. I have a rough idea of what my new website will look like and after consulting with a web designer friend, I've decided that Flash will be the program that best suits my design idea. There seem to be a lot of tutorials floating around the internet. Can somebody point me to a good website with beginner tutorials on using Flash for web design? Thanks!

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Airencracken

Here's the best tip for using flash on a web site.



Don't.

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eSDee

Lynda.com is where I get my tutorials. They've got a lot of excellent videos on there for all kinds of applications.

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ArkiStan

Would you say that for every single type of website design? Or do you say that simply because you are a purist?

I don't really care what I end up using. I'm not trying to become a web designer. I just need to find out the easiest, most efficient way to create this website of mine. Could there ever be exceptions to your tip? If so, I will post a mockup of my website so you can determine if Flash is indeed not recommended.

Airencracken

I don't do much web design myself, but I find as a user that Flash tends to be buggy, slow, and needlessly flashy, not to mention it is a bandwidth hog. There are very few websites I've seen that need flash.

It does depend on what you're doing and who will be your users, but generally, I dislike flash.

Maarchk

Flash usually distracts from your message. People are like oooh cool graphics and they lose site of the point. Or they don't have the right player, or there is a bug between browsers and what should be cool, results in them not being able to click on menus because the flash effects make it disappear or do other stupid things.
A little flash can add a little flash...(no pun really intended) but it is better as just a touch up, and not as your base.
I use flash only to display video tutorials. the rest of my site is devoid of flash.

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ArkiStan

Thanks guys. I'm gonna post up a mock up of my website in the next couple days. I hope people can tell me that it can be made without flash. I'd love to avoid using it if I can help it.

Maarchk

unless it's got action. you can do it in html. I imagine. but yes, show us.

sho.gun

Not sure why there's so much flash hate going on here, I think flash is simply a tool that can be used by both designers and developers. A tool can be misused, and I think that your problems regarding flash being slow and buggy lies not within the platform itself but rather on whoever did the sloppy coding. With a 98% install base, you'd be hard pressed to find an easier and more widely available platform with the same capabilities to code against.

The flash plugin is available for all major browsers and so far everything has been backwards compatible, even when they switched to AS3. Regardless, it's trivial to do a flash version check.

Regarding the bandwidth issue, it's 2008. Most of us are no longer using AOL dial up and we can spare the extra 50k of download time if it brings a richer user experience. I'd be interested in seeing the file size differences between flash swfs and some of the implementations using ajax frameworks that are widely in use today.

I've been an actionscript developer for a few years and even to this day I'm still impressed by how much flash has expanded. Keep in mind it used to be a simple animation program.

That being said, it's very important to know your target audience and the purpose of your site. If it's a reference site, you should avoid flash and stick to ye olde html.

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Maarchk

I agree its very useful and cool sho.gun. But when you go to a site and it's not done right, it's really frustrating. Cause a menu that expands when you hover, and then you slide towards the option you want and it retracts on you really pisses me off and makes me not want to go to that site.

Seeing as how Arkistan is brand new to the game, I was simply trying to help him avoid any possible mistakes as first time people coming to his website might get turned off if the flash is not done right. That's why i said a little flash, but not a lot to start with.