Today's post on 43 Folders is targeted at sites for bands and musicians, but the advice is useful for a far wider range of sites. Given that this quarter I'm teaching a web design class to students who are likely to want to use Flash for everything, this snippet from the post is particularly relevant:
Use Flash like you would cilantro—sparingly and for a single high-impact effect. Nobody wants to eat a whole bowl of cilantro, and nobody wants an animated death march when they have a "passionate task" to complete. Also, build your pages to make it super-easy to link to anything. Use sub-page anchors, and clearly identify why they're there.
Hey now, I actually dislike flash =P
Flash is not the problem. It is how people get carried away with it. A complete site can be made with Flash, entirely, and perform better than a straight HTML site.
It's like moving from DOS to Windows (or MAC:)) IMHO.
What misteaks do flash programmers make that create such large files and what shortcuts can help?