Hi.  I am looking for advice and information on the advantages and
disadvantages of having a website that is fully based on Flash vs. a
pure HTML site.

From talking with web designers and others in the field, I find that
many designers recommend against a site built largely or completely
with Flash.  Some argue that it is annoying for site visitors and can
crash PCs, frustrating visitors.  However, sites built using flash are
very appealing to the eye and look more sophisticated if designed
well.

Thanks. I am happy to clarify the question.

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Request for Question Clarification by answerguru-ga on 06 Sep 2004 19:39 PDT

Hi there,

The answer to this question would be much more valuable if the
researcher knew the context within which you were asking the question.
Perhaps you could provide some detail as to your knowledge of web
design, the content of the proposed site, intended target audience,
and any other details that may impact such a decision.

answerguru-ga

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Clarification of Question by healthresultsgroup-ga on 06 Sep 2004 19:58 PDT

Hi.  The context is I am deciding on the design parameters of a couple
sites involving business consulting.  The content will involve the
usual for a consulting site, such as information on services,
qualifications, news, profiles of key staff, contact info, other
resources.  The sites will promote the consulting services to a
diverse audience but primarily senior executives and managers in
business and government, plus news media and meeting managers.  I am a
client and not a web designer, therefore my expertise is limited. 
However, I have a fair grounding in the basics of web design, top
tools used, etc. - I defer programming to designers but am heavily
involved in specs and review.  I hope that helps.

Consider me completely biased.
Putting Flash on websites flying in the face of the concepts behind HTML
HTML is about giving a 'general outline' of the text you want to display
- not, as some people think, a form of Desktop publishing.

A web page should be quick to download, it should resize elegantly,
and it should allow people to extract text from it.

Ideally it should make very few assumptions about browsers, screen
sizes and installed fonts. Also it should 'degrade' gracefully as
options are unavailable or turned off.

If you are targetting people who actually know about the internet, and
have been using it for some time, then giving them a 'film show' will
make them turn off, rather than impress them.

Have a look at high volume sites like EBay and Amazon ... and er... Google
Then look at corporate sites like IBM, Dell admittedly they are after
the computer literate.

Flash is fine for kiddies - of course one needs a good sound track.

In your case, I think, you want a web site as a 'business card'