Flash Survey - One Year Later

[Brett_Tabke]

[webmasterworld.com...]

So, how do we feel about Flash today?

Worse than it was? Better than it was?

[madcat]

I'm in the process of learning Flash MX right as I read this thread. It's amazing to me how much negativity you all feel towards this program.

I certainly am an advocate for folks like Jeffrey Zeldman and Owen Briggs but I see tremendous power in this tool too. Just as there are crappy Flash sites I've seen some HTML that looks like hell...

anyway. [8edge.com...] is quick and straight to the point if you want it to be. Flash has many good points and something that shouldn't be stomped out so quickly.

[ken_b]

Any stats on the percentage of surfers with flash capacity?

[mahlon]

There are some sites that use it well in my opinion, such as [suuntosports.com...] As long as it's not too flashy and it's appropriate, I don't mind.

[papabaer]

Madcat, we all have our likes and dislikes, and that is good, but for my perspective, the example site you list is exactly the type of Flash site I loathe.

Long intro, two intros actually, almost three (really), long wait for navigation (I am on a DSL connection at that), gratuitous actionscripting (funky!) and I am already thinking: c'ya! Not my type.

That is the type of design that may (....may) be interesting first time through, but quickly moves to annoying at subsequent visits. Just my own thoughts...

Mahlon, I like your example since there is content available almost from the start, unobtrusive and accessible.

The deepfried site is nice as well, as txbakers notes, it provides freedom of choice.

I'm not so sure everyone is quick to stomp out Flash, I used 3,4&5 extensively, for the longest tme I thought EVERYTHING Flash was great! I just had a philosophical (and design) change of heart.

Just like chili powder... a little adds some nice zip, but too much leaves you with heartburn! ;)

[knighty]

The only time anyone should EVER use Flash is to acheive an objective that cannot be achieved through conventional means.

For instance the sunspot site - I don't see the point of doing that in Flash plus it brought up a load of javascript errors.

8edge.com on the other hand is great! They are a design site specialising in cutting edge media and show off their skills because that is why you would hire them. To only do the site in HTML would be pointless.

People going there would 9 times out of ten go there fully expecting and wanting to see some interactive animation.

They will not repeatedly visit the site to access information.

8edge.com is very nicely designed showcase for Flash and what can be achieved with it.

I don't use Flash because I dislike or like it, I use flash because it helps me to do something I could not do with HTML, CSS or JavaScript.

Do I like using JavaScript? No way! But I have to use it to achive certain objectives because there is no other way to do it.

[backus]

We use Flash for presentation sites. I think that is what it is best for. We are offering a slide-show type thing, which is cool. www.kebabery.co.uk is a good one - yumm!!

[txbakers]

I do a site for a non-profit music group, and I do it in straight HTML - clean, degrades, etc.

But next year I want to try to do it in Flash - not for animations, just to dress it up and for a change of pace. It will be all content, but I'll be able to take advantage of easier sound embedding, etc.

We'll see. Keeps my skills up anyway.

But like so many people above said, I'm not as crazy about Flash as I once was.

[mahlon]

I have to admit, sometimes flash is good for killing time! [no-god.com...]

[startup]

When it comes to online games, flash and shockwave are the best. J*v* can be very buggy.

[jady]

Excellent Brett!! Google indexed every single Flash! movie file on every single client site!

Also the Flash! on our home page has gotten us at least 4-5 clients over the past 2 months. Clients always start out with, "I love your home page - can we do something like this for our site?"

[martinibuster]

Silver Stage Players Flash site? With great respect to Marshall's opinion and no slight intended to you personally, I think that the flying letters flash intro is exactly the waste of time that is so common on the web. The other cliche with flash is the pulsing circles (why do flashers love bubbles and flying letters so much?)

I think that what an audience wants is the information. "When is the show? How much are the tickets?" A smart client will understand this and should be talked out of flying letter intros.

Talk about bad flash sites,take a look at the sfopera.com web site. It has a flying bird that spits out what looks like the current Nike logo but is actually their new logo. The upshot is that the navigation looks like an afterthought.

Sorry, but flash should be relegated to small boxes in a page, just like animated gifs, and leave the full site implementation to designers who can put a little thought into making it practical. Or for games.

Disclaimer:This is just my opinion and I in now way intend for it to be construed as the truth or the only way... :)