[wang_himself]

I have been developing web sites for quite a few years now and I am seeing an increasing trend between two groups of people. Those who like flashy, latest technology, hi-end web sites, and then those who like plain 12 point arial text on gray background. Granted the later can be spiced up a tad bit more, but I was wondering if annyone has seen this growing trend and if so have you taken any actions to sccomidating both groups?

[Synotic]

Originally posted by wang_himself:
I have been developing web sites for quite a few years now and I am seeing an increasing trend between two groups of people. Those who like flashy, latest technology, hi-end web sites, and then those who like plain 12 point arial text on gray background. Granted the later can be spiced up a tad bit more, but I was wondering if annyone has seen this growing trend and if so have you taken any actions to accommodating both groups?

Are you referring to end users? Also are you specifically referring to flash or just techy/hi-end websites?

If just Flash, I think it has certain purposes... but for the most part it not generally appropriate. I don't know of many sites which employ Flash that people frequent often. That is unless of course Flash is the sole attraction (homestarrunner, wired's flash site etc...).

You don't need to employ Flash or any other random gizmos on your page to make it interesting. The most important part of a site is content, design comes second.

[m a d r a]

i'm having a similar dilemma myself, pondering the latest redesign of my own site.

on the one hand i hate 99,9 [recurring] % of all flash sites out there.... sit through this 10min download to watch a load of text wave in from off-screen and slowly assemble itself onto an interface button which, when clicked on will roll around the screen before morphing into a menu which will allow you to..... etc ad mortem.

on the other hand i'm so sick of having to compromise every time i design a web page, because so many browsers can't render standards compliant code properly, that the prospect offered by flash of being able to design a page which looks the same on every platform is becoming more and more appealing. especially now MX 2004 supports [albeit in a limited way] CSS.

but then again there's the problem of search engines like google pretty much ignoring flash based sites.......

decisions...? decisions...?

in answer to your original question, what i look for in a site depends on what i want from that site. if i'm looking for reference material or textual info, i couldnae give a flying f**k about the look of the site. i just want good navigation and a search engine that delivers the goods.

if, on the other hand, i'm visiting a 'arty' site or software site, then the design of the pages is important. with an art or design site, it gives me an indication of the design skills of the people involved and with a software site, it gives me a feel for how 'classy' the interface of said product is likely to be, before i waste time and bandwidth downloading it. i'll generally not download a product if the website looks like a DOS interface from the 1980's.

[Millennium]

In general, unless there is some element of your design which absolutely requires Flash -and that number is surprisingly small indeed- then you shouldn't use it for the whole site. Even if you do need Flash for some design element, consider using it for only that element.

[robinpow]

I too have been doing sites for a while (7 years). I go by the rule "Less is More". Unless you NEED the flash, I would not use for a commerical site. While many of us are using newer machines, and high speed connections, there are tons of people who arn't.

Also we often forget that many web folks are not U.S., and arn't as spoiled as we are.

On the flip side if it's a personal website, have fun. If you want a little flash go for it.

[godzookie2k]

Use the right tool for the right job. Flash 5 has a 99.9% plugin penetration. the old "using plugins are badddd" philosophy doesn't apply. Getting google ranking and searching while using flash is perfectly possible, as is dynamically positioned MC's so a flash site fits dynamically without scaling to the size of the browser, accessability functions work, hell even mx2004 allows for scrollwheel usage. Use it if you know how to handle it and use it well. but don't use it if you don't have to. I've seen many a html page weigh in heavier than some flash sites, and vice versa. Don't blame the tool just because someone (alot of someones) use it badly.