Gone In A Flash

Posted by admin at 2011-05-20 14:07:00

When we designed Roseland Ballroom's last website, it was 2006 and Flash websites were still pretty popular. We had created an innovative flash website for them which, at that time, was kind of a big deal known as "full-browser flash." What this meant was that the website filled up the entire screen and seamlessly integrated the Flash content with the rest of the page so the whole thing felt unified rather than a box of Flash content floating in a square on the page.

Since then, Flash's popularity has consistently waned year after year despite the cries of Flash developers. The final nail in the coffin came when Apple released it's popular iPad which did not offer Flash support. In previous years, Apple's iPhone did not support Flash, either, but now that the larger iPad did not display Flash websites, it seemed that Flash was a thing of the past. Clients really lost interest in creating Flash-based websites since they were not reaching a fairly large audience.

Adding more fuel to the fire, research has shown that even people who can access Flash websites have very little patience for Flash unless they are specifically seeking a Flash-based experience such as an online video game. Flash websites are not particularly easy to update, either.

There was no shortage of reasons to update the Roseland Ballroom website and we were happy to do it. While the original site looked pretty cool at the time, by 2011 it had begun to look pretty dated.

Moving forward, the client requested the new website lose the rock n' roll vibe and focus more on special events. We chose to go with a classic feel, alluding to the legendary history of the venue, which opened it up to include possibilities in the mind of the viewer other than just rock n' roll.

Since the website would feature regular updating of the Events listings on the front page and possibly other occasional updates as well, we built the website with a Content Management System (CMS) that allows the client to update the content on their own. Other benefits: the site loads fast and looks great on iPhones and iPads! Best of all, it is optimized for Search Engines which makes it much more visible online than the previous Flash site.

Check out the new website here: www.roselandballroom.com

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