What do Tasers and Flash Animation Have in Common?

I was away on vacation last week, so I missed the news about the kid that was tasered at the Kerry speech in Florida. Like the good nerd I am, I ran to Google News to get the full story. Searching for "taser" I figured there could only be the one big story. Wrong.

As it turns out, there has been at least one big taser story each day for the last few months. In the last two weeks alone, an autistic child was tasered in California, a retired New York police officer accused cops of unwarranted taser use on his son, a mentally ill Florida woman in a wheelchair was tasered 10 times by police and killed. So what do tasers and Flash animation have in common? Both were invented with the best intentions, and both serve an important purpose. But with both, irresponsible or aggressive use is harmful.

On three separate occasions last week I found myself in conference with clients who were determined to use Flash to their Detriment.

1. One wanted a Flash “splash page” a mini commercial that would run before a visitor could access any part of the site.
2. The other presented with a site made entirely of Flash and could not understand why her site had no search engine rankings.
3. The third, enamored by a twinkling firefly effect wanted moving lights behind his text.

There are some fantastic examples of Flash out there…like the animated procedure tutorials from Understand.com or Candace Crowe. A little Flash on your home page can also go a long way, as long as it does not impede your visitors.

Here’s what I encourage any cosmetic and plastic surgeons to consider before adding Flash to their Web sites:

1. Your visitors came to your site for a reason, and it was not to watch a commercial;
2. Search engines still struggle to see text inside of Flash movies…so Flash sites rank poorly; and
3. Flash is just as likely to distract as attract. Continuous movement on a page impedes reading.

So before you move to “stun” visitors with the bells and whistles, step away from the Flash and carefully consider your next move.