Why is there such interest in Flash website Templates? - by Dave Collado

Misconception number two (it downloads too f#@%ing slow)
There is one other boo-boo we should discuss (i.e. Flash is too slow to download). Why would a Flash website template be any slower to download than a similar sized HTML template? Wouldn’t you agree that any website template could be optimized and well designed no matter the underlying technology? Is it that whole ActionScript vs. Timeline thingamabob theory or is it the trouble of dealing with ActionScript snooty linguistic seclusion within the Flash-editing environment, which, in my experience, can leave you feeling a little peculiar even if you already have some programming knowledge. Or perhaps it’s just some bias because of all the silly Flash intros we’ve all had to endure?

Actually, in most cases the problem actually derives from the misunderstanding or improper use of Preloaders. Preloaders are essentially a usability aid. When properly utilized, the Preloader’s sole purpose is to make a visitor’s browsing experience easier (modem or broadband) by displaying a very simple message or detailing how long the content their looking for on the website will take to appear. The gist of is to halt the progression of the movie and find out the movie file size by writing an ‘if’ conditional statement, to sea if the main timeline’s frames loaded is higher than or equal to the total frames, once the condition statement is met the play head is permitted to advance and the movie can get underway.

Great as that may be, what a Preloader can actually do is give a designer a false sense of security in that they may become insensitive or even feel justified to include redundant overcrowded movie clip instances, or get carried away with silly unjustifiable complexities in their animation. There I said it! In other words adding more and more movie clips intrinsically prolongs the movies load time. Get it? On the other hand, you can easily reduce the load time of your movie by using the root Timeline and training yourself to objectively assess your design.

In sum, as the bandwidth increases and more start to turn away from their TV and come stare away into cyberspace, the web will becomes more marketing-driven, more like TV; and they will start to reacquaint themselves with the insatiable urge to search for instant gratification and here without doubt, Flash has presented itself as the industries sassiest new weapon of choice.

About the author:
Dave Collado is the Senior Design Consultant at www.foamers.net who provides quality website templates customization, Flash templates customization, CSS templates, web design tutorials, and many other web design and web hosting services. This article may be republished providing it remains fully intact.

Share This

Pages: 1 2