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This entry was written by and posted on 26 Feb 2007 at 2:56 pm and filed under Customers, Internet, Web Sites, Worst Practices. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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7 Comments
I’m not a flash expert, but have a friend who is going to build a data-driven site and is considering flex. Imagine something like your bank’s website being in flex.
When I heard this, it didn’t sound like a good idea. Proprietary issues aside, is a flash-based site really a better user experience than HTML with a little unobtrusive ajax?
@Ben.
No says I.
However, one form of Flash can effectively be used to communicate with the public at times like this: Flash video. That’s what JetBlue used through YouTube to publish an apology communication from their CEO.
I dislike Flash as implemented 90% of the time.
That said, I don’t think the issue here is necessarily flash, as flash can certainly be set up to pull data from anything…including an easily (and quickly) updated CMS.
The bigger issue is many companies–ESPECIALLY the large ones–treat their web site as purely one-way communication. They could care less about hearing from their customers let alone keeping them informed on anything outside of their ‘on brand message’ superbowl ad or ‘viral web video’.
“However, one form of Flash can effectively be used to communicate with the public at times like this: Flash video.”
True, though the benefit there was less about flash and more about YouTube’s penetration. Still, video is one of the better uses of flash. ;0)
Agreed, Darrel. A more flexible web platform (not Flash) would allow for easy embedding of emergency communications in situations like JetBlue faced last week.
Another reason flash sucks:
My scroll mouse does not work with scrolling content in the flash. I hate manually scrolling, hence the scroll mouse. Either flash does not support it, or there is so much to do when creating a flash site that no one bothers to program the functionality.
Alright, better late then never for the guy who makes his living developing in Flash to chime in…
First the Scroll wheel:
By default, you should be able to scroll text fields with a scroll wheel if you are on a windows machine. Now the scrollbars are all very different and if a developer isn’t paying attention, you will get some funky behavior after you use a scroll wheel then switch to the bar. Also, all bets are off on a Mac.
Now about the subject here…
I have no doubt that many people have seen the extra intro pages that companies put up on their websites when they are in crisis. Most recently I noticed Adult Swim throw up a disclaimer/public announcement as their homepage to deal with a crisis at hand. Then they just link that into the rest of their site.
What’s wrong with that? Doesn’t that solve this “problem” you all have with flash sites?
Yes. I think there’s a lot of poorly developed Flash sites and I’m not completely proud of my own work. At the same time we all need to recognize that it’s got it’s place and I think it allows me to build engaging experiences that there is no other way to deliver on the web.