flashfilter: Good Flash Website Templates

May 5, 2008 1:47 PM

flashfilter: Good Flash Website Templates - I'm technically capable but we need something quickly and don't have much money. We have access to Flash CS3 pro, Flex Builder 3, etc. I can get around in CS3 and can handle ActionScript. I, however, have no design skills at all. We already have artwork, logos, and a color scheme. Is there anywhere I can get free/cheap pre-built flash website templates that don't suck? Doing a few Google searches come up with a bunch of hokey template sites which all seem to share the same bunch of lousy templates.
posted by Echidna882003 to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Template Kingdom, Template Monster
posted by elle.jeezy at 2:09 PM on May 5

I'm not sure what you want in a "Flash template" - and I'm a Flex developer. Typically, you're not going to use Flash to structure all of the pages in your site; you're going to use it for specific interactivity requirements. Using Flash functionality as a template for page content is a bad, bad idea.

I realize this isn't the answer you're looking for. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your requirements and goals.
posted by me & my monkey at 2:23 PM on May 5

By template I mean a rough starting point to build upon. A shell that I can add my own "look and feel" to. Why is using "Flash functionality..." a "bad bad" idea, nike.com and adidas.com both use Flash extensively.
posted by Echidna882003 at 2:50 PM on May 5

nike.com and adidas.com both use Flash extensively

The nike.com site is a particularly poor example, I think:

"Then there are the sites that miss the mark on both counts -- usability and SEO. Consider Nike.com, which just got picked apart for its SEO mistakes in an article on MarketingProfs this week. (I just blogged a quick summary of the article here.) I agree that Nike.com misses the mark in regards to search, and I also find the site severely lacking when it comes to usability and accessibility, IMHO."

On my machine, some of the controls are unusable, others are unreadable.

The adidas.com site isn't as bad, but still a bit problematic if you're using anything but a standard desktop or laptop computer. On my 1024x600 display, for example, the controls are off the screen and I have to scroll to get to them.

Marketers love Flash because it looks, well, flashy. But it's not great for conveying textual information. Here are some great uses of Flash. These are applications built in Flex, and they use the power of Flash to let users do things that HTML-based applications just can't do nearly as well.
posted by me & my monkey at 3:42 PM on May 5

Nike.com and Adidas.com were not built from "free/cheap pre-built flash website templates".

Please don't use Flash without the time, budget or expertise to use it wisely.
posted by rokusan at 3:52 PM on May 5

Geeze, well okay then.

Nike.com and Adidas.com were not built from "free/cheap pre-built flash website templates".
- I didn't mean to imply that nike or adidas didn't spend $$ on their sites, I was merely using them as an example of sites that use flash to display content.

The adidas.com site isn't as bad, but still a bit problematic if you're using anything but a standard desktop or laptop computer. On my 1024x600 display, for example, the controls are off the screen and I have to scroll to get to them. ... Marketers love Flash because it looks, well, flashy. But it's not great for conveying textual information.

- I'm not familiar with 1024 x 600 as a standard screen size, and again I was using those sites as an example, not that I wanted to use the same screen dimensions. I don't want to display textual information, I want to do "flashy" things with graphics.

Please don't use Flash without the time, budget or expertise to use it wisely.
and
Please don't use flash -- at all. Flash is for games and Yahoo mail.
- thanks for the input, but I really just wanted to be pointed in the direction of a possible solution. I understand that these comments are your opinions, and are probably based in very reasonable and experienced points of view, but I wasn't asking for your feelings about Flash as a web content delivery tool.
posted by Echidna882003 at 8:09 PM on May 5

OK, aside from the entirely valid "if you're going to do an entire site in Flash, please allow some time to get it right" point, may I suggest that the cheapest way of getting Flash templates - or at least files that you can mod to your own style - is to find a Flash book that has a really good "real world tutorial"?

It's in the publishing house's interest to make sure that such tutorials are robust and exemplify best practice, and it's an open secret that people often buy books like this to steal the code and mod it rather than learn anything. If you look carefully you may even find some publishers who put source code up on their websites for free download as they assume that it's no use without the book...
posted by unless I'm very much mistaken at 7:50 AM on May 6

I'm not familiar with 1024 x 600 as a standard screen size, and again I was using those sites as an example, not that I wanted to use the same screen dimensions.

"Widescreen" displays are becoming pretty common.

I don't want to display textual information, I want to do "flashy" things with graphics.

Then, a prebuilt template won't help you much, because they tend to be things you pour your normal display elements (aka text) into. If you have specific effects you want, and specific graphics you want to use, you're not likely to find an existing template that will do what you want. Typically, "doing flashy things with graphics" are essentially one-offs.
posted by me & my monkey at 2:27 PM on May 6