Please let Flash be in demise
Reading a very interesting blog posting about the demise of Flash, I was left with the question: Is Flash really in demise? I also wanted to add my thoughts as to why it should be.
I couldn’t agree more with Tadeusz Szewczyk about the reasons he states about why Adobe® Flash is in demise. I’ve yet to see a ‘good’ website that is built in Flash. Invariably the message or reason for being is so pointless that it requires a song and dance to make it interesting. In nearly all cases a more suitable solution would be one static web-page which which can be scanned quickly by the user, and which gives as much information in the time it takes to work out what the designer has created and that you can’t be bothered to deal with it.
I find that it can be quite a compelling media-type when it’s embedded into web pages and when it is used to bring animation and audio to static content, but in using it, companies are being a little presumptuous that users actually give a shit enough to sit and watch the thing.
The idea of Flex is scary in that ’someone’ must think that it’s a good enough idea to want to use it. What is the point of running an application framework within a perfectly capable existing one? I mean, I know why web agencies like to use Flash — because it tends to lock clients into the pain and cost of updating, but why do clients choose it? I guess the idea is that they love to have the total control over exactly how their product/brand looks and behaves regardless of the numerable negative effects this has on the user’s experience.
I generally tend to find Flash-based websites so obstructive to the point that they can be analogised by the scenario of going into a shop to buy something, but before I can get through the front door, a shop assistant - dressed in corporate attire and sporting a huge logo - blocks my way and does a song & dance in front of me proclaiming how wonderful the company is, whilst also telling visually impaired customers to ‘bugger off’. My point is, if the company is that wonderful, if the services they offer are compelling, interesting and great, I will see that for myself. I don’t need to be stopped and told that before I enter. Building a brand online is not just about looking cool and waving your logo in front of users’ faces, it’s about what you do and how you do it.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Accessibility, Design, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.