That reminds me ... I'm in a situation where I'm going to be taking over primary responsibility for my employer's web site. We're an association for the design and construction industry and our front page has a large image of a project that won an award in our annual competition. They're "rotating" in the sense that every time someone visits the front page, it's a different picture; as long as they remain on the page, the image is the same.
We've had kind of a free for all situation - everyone's been able to make any changes they wanted to (yes, that worked out about as well as you'd expect). Two of the people who've been doing a lot of the work have been doing things like putting up high-res graphics, putting the entire text of items on the front page, etc. Yes, that's going to change.
Now ... one of them suggested that in place of the stationery image we have a Flash file of the various images, so that they change while someone's on the page.
I'm trying to get the site set up so that people who don't have access to a lot of bandwidth, or are viewing the site on a BlackBerry or some such, will be able to get information, if not all the pretty pictures.
Can anyone help me pose more - or better - arguments against the Flash movie? eesh ....
Can you do two versions of the site?
Nope - just the one.
And, basically, I want some arguments I can use that are less likely to make me sound like a stick-in-the-mud who's just against it because it's new and fresh (gag).
I just block flash unless I want to see it which is rarely, so does my wife. I don't know how prevalent that is.
do they understand that it will take more bandwith on your part as well?
They don't really realize it ... and don't really care.
The people who've been doing a lot of the work are young - one's just out of college - and are focusing on what looks good and works well for them. We have a T1 line AND the server's in our office, connected to our network in some way. So we get virtually instantaneous downloads, regardless of the file size. Which is why we've got 300dpi images on our web site.
Toddson, it's possible to put together a Flash app that pulls the images (and html) from an XML file, so that you just have to upload the files to the right directories and hand-edit the extremely simple XML to match.
I made up a Flash page for my resume that does just that, though I purposely made the pictures small & icon-y because the emphasis is supposed to be on the resume content. It's a carousel setup but pictures could be fading in and out instead, easy-peasy.
Also, unless you're intending the picture to be downloaded or put up on an HDMI screen there's no point in going above 72 dpi. Making there be a rule about total file size will get the youngin's paying attention to how they optimize their pictures.
Which is why we've got 300dpi images on our web site.
*cries and cries*
This site changes the right hand graphics on reload using php. I don't have details on how, but that does suggest it can be done.
This forum thread had a suggestion for using php to switch out graphics on refresh. They also say you can use javascript, but they don't say how.
