How to Create a Flash Website from Scratch

While casually browsing through websites, I always come across websites that are just awesome visually. With all the effects and sounds being played on each and every minute change in your action. This is the essence of an interactive website, one that takes the user experience to a very high level.

The element behind all this interactivity is Flash.  Flash websites do have an upper edge over other type of websites because it has many applications and it can be used to ramp up the website design in more than one way.

Understanding Flash. Not a piece of cake

Though Flash looks really impressive. Creating a Flash website on your own, requires knowledge of Flash and basic web programming, and to achieve better results, you need to learn advanced concepts of Flash programming. This can takes days, weeks or months (depending on how fast you can learn). As a blogger, I think I will be wasting lot of time in creating such a website and that is why I would not like to create a Flash Website.

Wix has the solution

All the programming is not required if you use Wix’s free website builder. I was completely taken aback by the ease and simplicity with which you can create a website. Creating a website of your own could not be simpler. Also, a major problem faced by Flash websites is that they are not SEO friendly. But Wix websites are search engine friendly and therefore, you don’t have to worry about losing search engine traffic.

In order to start a new website, you have to click on Start Creating to get started.

After that you can choose a huge list of previously designed Flash templates categorized according to different needs. Alternatively, you could also start the design from scratch and start designing the way you want without the necessary programming (Wix is doing that for you )

The Wix Editor is similar to blogger editor in terms of it’s simplicity, but fully loaded with features that will truly amaze you.

In the editor you have options of adding a Flash gallery to showcase some of your great works. Plus you can animate any part of the website and make it more interactive by adding media to it (music,videos, etc.). Also, the best part is that you could add any number of functions to your website with a few clicks –which shows how simple it is to create a website from Wix.

You can also take a look at some great websites made by Wix by clicking at the Explore Tab on the homepage.

You might argue that HTML design is better than Flash, but:

Although, an HTML website is good for a minimalistic website which has a small purpose, but for a broader and more niche audience, it is always better to have a website that focuses on a magnificent design which leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

I have listed the pros and cons of a Flash design for you:

Pros

Feature Addition

Whenever you are looking for a good gadget, your main focus is on the various features it has to offer. You always go for one which has more features available at lower cost. Similarly, a feature-rich website is always preferred over feature-less website. The feature I am talking about here is the ability to integrate media in to your website. With the help of Flash you can embed videos, sounds and animations into your website in a way that converts it into an interactive website.

The major benefit of having an interactive website is to increase the engagement with your readers. If you have more things on your website, then obviously readers will spend more time on your site and this will help in increasing conversions from visitor to reader.

The Interactive Fair Design Website

Example: The Fair Design Website has an interesting feature, when hovering on the concentric circles, you hear a sound.

Ease of use

It can be really irritating to load pages every time when you want to browse through the website. The best part of Flash is that you don’t have to reload your pages, the Flash object does the changing of the pages without reloading. Also, it levels up the type of website navigation you can get from a design. The look of the navigation can be completely changed by adding Flash object to it. These capabilities helps in an easy and pain-free browsing.

Simple and Elegant Design of Michele Motta Photography website

A good example of this is the Michelle Motta Photography Website which has a very impressive navigation and you can scroll through all the main navigation links without even reloading a single page.

Stunning Design

An essential part of a 5D Blog Experience is a design that catches hold of the reader’s attention. I agree with the fact that a normal website can achieve that. But a Flash website can do a lot better – it can glue the readers to your site. Wouldn’t that be great? The design can now include animated  texts and images.

Style Hub About Page

You can see that with the added animation effects, the design of a website named Style Hub looks really fabulous

Cons

Where there are pros, there are cons as well.

Flash Plugin

The problem is that a Flash website works only if you have the Flash plugin installed on your browser. Most of your visitors have Flash installed on their browsers, but some visitors won’t have it and hence they will not be able to view your website properly. And this will mean loss of traffic.

Slow Loading

There is always a side effect of being feature-rich. As more and more features are added to your site, they take more space and hence lead to a slower loading website which is not good for the users.

Now it is totally upto you. You have to weigh the pros and cons and decide whether Flash is good for you.

But if you chose Flash over HTML, then you should give a try to Wix’s Free Website Builder. I am sure that it will not disappoint you.