Nice use of Flash

Subtle, effective

[txbakers]

We've been talking a lot about Flash and appropriate uses for it.

I came acros a site today that I thought was a particularly nice use for Flash. It's very subtle, and effective.

I didn't design it, I have no interest in it, but I thought I'd pass it along. I'm not sure if the URL will remain here, but it's nice.

www.oceanenergy.com

Thanks

[Michael Weir]

Looks nice, but that site is not marketable.

[idiotgirl]

One of my favorite hangouts is National Geographic's site. They had/have a Pearl Harbor interactive in Flash that totally engrossed me. Another favorite place, Discovery Channel's site, also had some neat Titanic stuff. I think these sites have used Flash (in these cases) particularly well. Very artsy, informative, smooth, very well done.

I think that's the way I enjoy Flash: as a well-thought out presentation. I spend a lot of time online (duh) and I am easily bored (aka burned out). Some fade-in/fade-out Flash banner or techno-style navigation that moves just doesn't do it for me. I thoroughly enjoy being pleasantly surprised - and these impressed me.

[evinrude]

Hehe.... I love the little meter next to their stock quote that as soon as it hits the top, plummets back to the bottom. :)

[txbakers]

Michael: what do you mean that the site is not marketable?

Another nifty Flash were those Neiman-Marcus ads that would appear on the NY Times site - I especially liked the submarine. I wanted to buy one, but it was $6,000,000.

[Michael Weir]

There is no body text whatsoever - the text you are seeing is part of a picture. Try to highlight it with your mouse - you can't. View the page source - there is nothing of substance for a search engine to find - no body or link text, meta tags, etc. Pretty graphics are nice, but it would take some serious cloaking or hidden text (spam) to market this site. That's the problem with flash sites.

It is a very nice looking site though. :)

[kris]

I agree with Micheal. However I don't think this necessarily a Flash problem but a design problem. That is a huge graphic at the top. You could achieve nearly the same effect with a background image and "indexable" text. I love using Flash for navigation but when I do I always backup those links with text links that a spider can follow.

This is different type of site though. It doesn't look as if this company needs or would benefit much from good search engine rankings. I don't think that "underwater ocean oil drilling" made the top 100 searches of 2001!! Good looking site!

[IanKelley]

I agree nice looking site... I have to add, though, that the designer either doesn't understand (or decided to say screw it) about designing for the web.

Just one example... the front page contains a 795x277 pix jpeg that's over over 100k in size... It could easily be 15k-20k of chopped gifs if you look at the color-scheme/visual depth... Even so, what's the point of nice flash integration if someone at 800x600 can't even see it without scrolling?

I always get a mixed impression of sites like this... they're visually impressive but so is any site that you design entirely in photoshop and flash. :-)

It is nice use of flash, though, especially on some of the sub pages.

[Marcia]

This one I found is marketable, imho. I found it among top listings at ATW or NL a while back and bookmarked it as "great site design". Except for a minor exception with the splash page (after the first visit), which still isn't half bad, this is absolutely the best, most effective use of Flash I've ever seen:

www.cen.net

It gives the sense of visual movement without trying the patience, conveys the message quickly and is right to the point. To my taste Flash needs to be used in just the right amount (moderation) for an appropriate purpose.

And with this site there's text for search engines, that's how I found it.

These two sites serve a completely different purpose.

[txbakers]

That cen site was nice. Another site that I enjoyed at first, but which became increasingly annoying was www.innovativepercussion.com

Their entire site was FLASH, to the point of having to tell the user not to use the browser back button for navigation.

At first I thought it was cool, but after a few visits I longed for a simple way to get where I wanted to go.

This one borders on over-Flash, in my opinion.

[Michael Weir]

I dunno about that cen.net site. The opening pic is horribly compressed - but the flash is not too "flashy" and it is marketable so that's good at least. I usually don't have the patience to even sit through flash intro's.

[knighty]

Normally I really like Flash but ALL those site were rubbish!

Pointless use of flash
Poorly designed (technically and graphically)
when they used HTML most of it was sub standard

Sorry but I've seen pre schoolers make better sites.

[txbakers]

ok, good sir Knight, pray point us to sites that you deem worthy of your noble attention.

I haven't seen too many preschoolers work with Flash.

[Michael Weir]

You'd be surprised what they teach preschoolers these days. When I went to pre school it was fingerpainting and story time. Kids these days go to preschool to learn about flash integrated web design. :)

[kris]

I agree with the knight. I really didn't like those sites. Did anybody notice that the main graphic on cen.net has a "Corbis" embossed across the front of it? That looks a little unprofessional IMHO.

For pure flash site I like:
www.oxygen-productions.com
www.wmteam.de/index3.html

This IMHO is what flash can be. In these cases I think that the flash is warranted because they are trying to wow the user. This wouldn't work for an informational site.

[Michael Weir]

www.wmteam.de/index3.html ---> Very cool! I couldn't get the other URL to work.

[kris]

Try this page - www.oxygen-productions.com/movie.html

Here is another site I really like - www.dennisinter.com/disite/index-flash.html

[JonB]

[eye4u.com...]
is very cool.

Also when i am on school computer i check [bestflashsites.de...]

some sites there are jsut amazing, some incredibly artistic!
Jon

[knighty]

OK I may have used a little amount of hyperboly yo make my point.

Its just that Flash gets such a bad name from people who are determined to hate it.

It seems there are two main types of designers...

The I'm a Graphic Design Guru, my visual skills are amazing but unfortuently my sites need a NASA computer to run and take a short lifespan to download. My navigation is mysterious and the only person I think about when designing this site is how cool I think it is.

OR....

The I'm a Web Usability Expert, my visual skills would appeal to someone from the stone age but my sites work in every single browser because they are so unbeleivably boring and simple.

why can't we have the best of both worlds? I know there are people who try to strike a balance - these are the extremes.

OK so what is good Flash? Well I've listed some below that I feel meet the purpose they were intended for.

I'll just sit back and wait for the stream of critics to roll in ;)

GIF ALTERATIVES
[audiusa.com...]

DEMOING PRODUCTS
[microsoft.com...]

MULTIMEDIA
[mnh.si.edu...]

APPLICATIONS
[ihotelier.com...]

[joshie76]

Those are more like it! here's two of my personal favourites...

[orisinal.com...]
[2advanced.com...]

Josh

[joshie76]

Ooh, and don't forget:

COMMERCIAL
[10socks.com...]

(marvel at the artwork, flow and price of 10 socks)

[knighty]

Stunning Flash
[8edge.com...]

Gorgeous Colorful Graphics (eats YO bandwidth)
[webagent007.com...]

[txbakers]

It all really depends on the purpose of the use of Flash. If one of Knight's purposes listed above IS the purpose that's fine.

But too many sites use Flash just for sake of being cool. These cool sites are fun the first time, but very annoying after that. If I go back to the site, I just want my information. I've already been impressed with the sales pitch.

I like the gif replacement idea the best for general web usage.

If the purpose, however, of the site is to showcase animation, or a travel guide to Nepal, then I should have the option of viewing the Flash movie in a separate click. I really dislike being forced to watch a Flash movie that I don't want to waste my time with.

[joshie76]

OK, I'm going to do it. I'm going to learn Flash... which book is best? I've heard good things about Foundation Flash.

Josh

[idiotgirl]

joshie-

There's a neat new book about Flash Actionscripting you might like. In fact, I think that's the title.

I was at Barnes & Noble over the weekend and saw some poor lady sitting on the floor with a pile of Flash and Dreamweaver books that was as high as her head. Apparently, she had her work cut out for her.

You're a sharp guy - so I think if you got a basic book like "How To Use Macromedia Flash 5", which I picked up at the half-price book store not too long ago, it would get you on the quick path. From there - you could probably go straight into action scripting with the new Flash action scripting book.

Or, you could buy the Flash Bible and use it as an excellent reference manual and a ten pound doorstop when you were finished with it.

I like short books with lots of pictures, personally. If I can *see* it - I can learn it. Maybe you like lots of text - and the Flash Bible would be just the ticket.

I never find the time to read all these manuals and books I have in my office, anyway. Reading also makes me sleepy. I also lose most manuals in the assorted piles which dominate my landscape, this personal Hell known as "ig's office". My regex book was lost four four months. Just found it again.

Tetanus shots are optional.

[joshie76]

Thanks IdiotGirl,

>>I like short books with lots of pictures, personally.

I'm with you there - I too don't have much time to read. I have none at all in the office so I'll have to learn flash at home. I'll be sure to check out the books you mention.

J

[knighty]

Personally I think the best way to learn is by trying and failing.

Just map ot an idea that you want to do and then figure out how to do it through tutorials etc. When you eventaully complete it you will then realise

1) how to make it better
2) realise how to do it more efficiently
3) bang your head against a wall occaisionally muttering "DOH!"

[joshie76]

>> is by trying and failing.

I've done this with so many technologies that I've learned. However, I want to one properly as I'm bored of doing something the way I think is best until I come across someone else's code and find that there is already some built in function to do it all for you*

Though I guess this'll happen anyway.

*I came across a great piece of code somebody had written in ASP to Replace bits of strings - it was huge. Can you imagine his face when somebody told him he could just use the Replace() method.

[kris]

Joshie,
I think along with the books mentioned above, you may take a look at [flashkit.com....] This site has a ton of tutorials, examples and inspiring works. This is by far the best resource on the web for flash.

BTW - Marcia if you thought [cen.net...] was "best, most effective use of Flash I've ever seen" you should really visit flashkit.com. You have no idea what you are missing!

[Tim Lancaster]

I would have to say that the www.cen.net site is ok. The major fault I see is the use of the "illegal" photo. The designer should really purchase the picture from Corbis.com if they're going to use it!

just a thought!