Flash Intro

A piece of animated content displayed at the beginning of a presentation, such as a web site, that is specifically prepared using Adobe Flash. The main content is preparing to load in the background, while the animated content is displayed in the foreground.

The intent is to captivate the user's attention so that he or she does not stray from the site, although the quality of content is usually marketing-centric. Often a "skip" button is prepared to allow more immediate access to the site's home page.

Many elaborate Flash-based introductions appeared in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Today such productions, particularly the lengthier ones, are considered old hat amongst the web design community. From a usability perspective the intros are regarded as more of a time-consuming distration toward reaching the more valuable home page content. Despite this there are several online vendors providing simplified intro builder services for those with no Flash authoring skills.