Flash - Fit for Use?
A very interesting debate is brewing about the use of flash.......again!!!
The article by Brian Morrissey on Adweek - Is the Flash-powered agency site obsolete? - opens up the topic of 'fit-for-use'. And in my opinion its a great discussion that shows finally, maybe, hopefully, the more traditional side of the marketing and communications discipline is starting to get it!!
For years these monoliths of traditional media have taken the view that websites are an adjunct, a support piece or a fluffy 'data-capture' mechanism for the main campaign material spread across the 'sexy' mediums of TV and print. This article and the subsequent comments are heart warming.
It's great to hear that the days of 'skip intro' websites from agencies that should know better might finally give way to real, dynamic and relevant online experiences.
Now I don't mean to say that the flash website cannot play its role and that dynamic, motion-oriented websites where interaction and eye-candy are used well, are dead, but I really feel that agencies are starting to look beyond the fluff, are getting to the point of the web and are starting to bring the intelligence and craft garnered from decades of refining the mediums of television and print, to the web.
hoo-Rah! Finally they're bringing beer to the party instead of soft drink ;)
Certainly for the last 5 years or so, the Digital-Centric agencies (that spawned as a result of traditional agency reticence to get involved in the 'fad-called-Web') have led the way and understood that dynamism and interaction in both creative AND content was the winning formula.
Now, I haven't designed a flash based website for quite some time now (I played my part in the 'skip intro' blight), but over the last 7 years in my dealings both from an Adobe employee perspective and an independent UI/UX consultant I have been an advocate for flash when flash can enhance the experience, and in many cases this has been on a 'spot' basis - a tool, a widget, an effect - not the crux of the web environment.
The original site - Flex 1.5 - simply ground the end user experience to a halt.
Suggested updates to the site structure were to drop the 'full-flash' experience and to use flash where flash could be effective...not in rendering HTML text and simple jpg imagery.
In an engagement with the Australian Financial Review a few years ago, I was presented with a much loved, heavily trafficked website that had recently adopted the flash platform - through the use of Adobe Flex 1.5 - as its whole display technology...some 10 or more small, self contained flash 'pods' that whilst independently performed well and with style, as a collective, ground the users experience (and pc of choice) to a halt not to mention the poor servers on which they were housed.
My first and possibly most helpful action was to challenge the overuse of flash as a presentation technology, suggesting that in reality lots of the view could be rendered much more efficiently and effectively using much more traditional technologies.
More lightweight, easier to update, manage and maintain from all angles.
I don't have results or anecdotes on the improvements made, but needless to say the site certainly performed better after this flash stranglehold was released.
What's my point you may ask...well, there isn't another technology that can deliver as compelling an end user experience to as many desktops or devices as consistently as the Adobe Flash Platform can. Period. BUT with all the benefits of this technology comes a responsibility to use it wisely, effectively and deploy it efficiently.
For years these monoliths of traditional media have taken the view that websites are an adjunct, a support piece or a fluffy 'data-capture' mechanism for the main campaign material spread across the 'sexy' mediums of TV and print. This article and the subsequent comments are heart warming.
It's great to hear that the days of 'skip intro' websites from agencies that should know better might finally give way to real, dynamic and relevant online experiences.
Now I don't mean to say that the flash website cannot play its role and that dynamic, motion-oriented websites where interaction and eye-candy are used well, are dead, but I really feel that agencies are starting to look beyond the fluff, are getting to the point of the web and are starting to bring the intelligence and craft garnered from decades of refining the mediums of television and print, to the web.
hoo-Rah! Finally they're bringing beer to the party instead of soft drink ;)
Certainly for the last 5 years or so, the Digital-Centric agencies (that spawned as a result of traditional agency reticence to get involved in the 'fad-called-Web') have led the way and understood that dynamism and interaction in both creative AND content was the winning formula.
Now, I haven't designed a flash based website for quite some time now (I played my part in the 'skip intro' blight), but over the last 7 years in my dealings both from an Adobe employee perspective and an independent UI/UX consultant I have been an advocate for flash when flash can enhance the experience, and in many cases this has been on a 'spot' basis - a tool, a widget, an effect - not the crux of the web environment.
The original site - Flex 1.5 - simply ground the end user experience to a halt. 
Suggested updates to the site structure were to drop the 'full-flash' experience and to use flash where flash could be effective...not in rendering HTML text and simple jpg imagery. In an engagement with the Australian Financial Review a few years ago, I was presented with a much loved, heavily trafficked website that had recently adopted the flash platform - through the use of Adobe Flex 1.5 - as its whole display technology...some 10 or more small, self contained flash 'pods' that whilst independently performed well and with style, as a collective, ground the users experience (and pc of choice) to a halt not to mention the poor servers on which they were housed.
My first and possibly most helpful action was to challenge the overuse of flash as a presentation technology, suggesting that in reality lots of the view could be rendered much more efficiently and effectively using much more traditional technologies.
More lightweight, easier to update, manage and maintain from all angles.
I don't have results or anecdotes on the improvements made, but needless to say the site certainly performed better after this flash stranglehold was released.
What's my point you may ask...well, there isn't another technology that can deliver as compelling an end user experience to as many desktops or devices as consistently as the Adobe Flash Platform can. Period. BUT with all the benefits of this technology comes a responsibility to use it wisely, effectively and deploy it efficiently.
posted by Simon Reid at
11:22 AM
1 Comments
