Sunday, January 24, 2010

I Love Flash Templates

Now, I mostly use Flash to make animated media and web site intro movies. I learned basic ActionScript, but when it comes to Flash development I'm more of a tinkerer than a developer. That's why I love free Flash template websites, such as http://www.flashmo.com. It's like getting a Lego set. All the pieces are there--pre-built, even. But I get to poke around in the Actions and change the colors and content to suit my needs. With so many great Flash developers out there, it hardly seems worth it to build my own Flash site from scratch. However, I do prefer the Flash templates that are more complex and require knowledge of Flash and ActionScript, as I find them more robust than simpler Flash templates.

What about Flash sites that do it all, like Wix? I haven't tried the site builder tools myself, but I've browsed through quite a few of the sites that others have made. A lot of them look good, but are kind of clunky to use. A Flash site still needs a consistent menu that can take you to any of the pages on the site. Also, a lot of these sites begin with an "Enter" page. That is so outdated! Don't make your user make an extra click just to "Enter site." It is far better to make your intro movie smaller and part of the layout than to devote a separate portal page to it.

For accessibility reasons, it's probably best to integrate Flash elements into your site rather than make a site completely in Flash. But Flash sites can look so good! And that's why Flash templates are a guilty pleasure of mine.

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