SSWI — When in doubt, buff it out.

flash suxxors,

Written in Frisco, TX on August 31, 2005 and tagged with .

3 Comments, 0 Tweets, why not add one?

This ‘webcomic’ from Webjillion captures my flash sentiments perfectly.  If you haven’t checked out the comics at Webjillion you should, very funny.  And he stole my idea!

If you post about this on Twitter, please use the hashtag #silly518.

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Chris J. Davis, on March 1, 2007

I agree almost completely. I am not a big fan of Flash for websites… there are very few places that I have seen Flash used that the same effect could not have been reached through the use of CSS, JS and some programming language. But I will admit that I have seen some very nice uses of Flash, your site is actually one I point to and say begrudgingly: “Very nice use, I can’t really complain.”

I am more of a fan of Flash to deliver rich media content, ala Homestarrunner and JibJab. Flash gives you a toolkit to deliver rich, sophisticated animated media and that is something to applaud.

Good to hear from you on this subject Joen, as I think you are one of my favorite users of Flash.

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Joen, on March 1, 2007

Thanks Chris, I appreciate that.

I have gone to great lengths to make my Flash accessible, and during that process I have learned myself, just what the true problem with Flash is.

The problem is not that people use it wrongfully (as illustrated so well in this article), it is the fact that in a way it encourages people to do so. The fact is, Flash (today, mind you!) has huge and well thought out accessability features. But more often than not, they require HUGE chunks of code, and a good deal of planning. It simply takes too long to create good Flash!

CSS and HTML, on the other hand, if you just do it right, you’re granted so many things, almost for free! In fact, things are so well thought out that we almost take them for granted. Here are some of the things that work really well in CSS / HTML, and takes enormous efforts in Flash:

Standardized and (hands off!) easily stylable UI / form elements (scrollbars, buttons, etc)
Tabbing. It might sound like a no-brainer, but making sure tab focusing works properly in Flash is a mess
Named anchors. It barely works in Flash.
Standard browser behaviour for right/click, links, etc. etc. etc.

Those are just a few, but it takes sooo much work to make good Flash, that this alone is Flash’s problem.

Time to end this rant :)

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Joen, on March 1, 2007

HAAAHAHHAA that’s a good one!

Oh, how to start, how to start.

Fact is, I used to create websites with exactly the same problems 2advanced suffer from.

Now I’m much smarter, but I still use Flash.

The thing is, Flash can really do some fantastic stuff, but websites like these (and my own in the past, I guess), gave Flash a bad name. They made people think of popup windows, fullscreen websites, mystery meat navigation, endless load times, and music that suddenly starts out of nowhere. But that’s not what Flash was meant for, and it’s by no means reason enough to dismiss Flash entirely.

Flash can be user friendly, it can be accessible, it can be non-intrusive. In short, it can be used right! 2advanced just doesn’t do that, and neither did my old websites. It’s sad to see people “hate Flash”, when they should rather hate those who abuse Flash.