To Flash or not to Flash
Thursday was the last day of my web design classes at NC State. The subject of our class was probably one of the most controversial subjects in web design: Flash.
Ever since I developed an interest in web design, I keep hearing conflicting reports about Flash. Some people think it is a great tool for creating web sites (and in the case of newspapers a way to develop powerful multimedia stories.) However, I’ve discovered there is also a fair amount of ‘Flash-haters.’ Apple seems to be leading the cause of the ‘Flash-haters’ by refusing to allow Flash on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
I still haven’t heard a convincing argument from people on why I should be pro/anti Flash. For the record, I think I am neutral Flash. I think people shouldn’t use Flash as much on their web sites, but I also think people are fooling themselves if they think Flash will disappear anytime soon.
Despite my neutral Flash stance, I do face a Flash dilemma: do I use Flash on my capstone project? There are going to be a ton of photos on my web site. I might even use a video (depending on how ambitious I want to be). It would be easy to create a photo slideshow with Flash. I’ve used the program a few times before, and I know that it wouldn’t be hard for me to learn Flash. Plus, I have seen a lot of job postings mentioning they want candidates to know Flash.
However, my web site wouldn’t be friendly to any Apple product that isn’t a computer. Nothing annoys me more than not being able to view someone’s web site on my iPod Touch. The new A-Team trailer came out yesterday, and I had to wait all day until I could get to my computer to watch it because it was in Flash. I was pissed.
To help me figure out a solution to my dilemma I did a Flash pro/con list:
- -I would become more versatile in Flash.
- -It would be easier for me to use Flash.
- -Not a big fan of writing JavaScript code.
- -Flash would be faster than learning how to write the JavaScript code.
PRO
CON
- -Flash can’t be viewed on most Apple products.
- -My web site wouldn’t be ‘mobile.’
- -I would have to use JavaScript, and thus improve my JavaScript skills.
- -Do I want to learn a program that might be going away in a few years?
- -Potential employers would be more impressed by my JavaScript skills than Flash skills.
- -Improving my JavaScript skills would be a boost to learning other coding programs
MY DECISION
I’m going to attempt the slideshows in JavaScript. However, I reserve the right to change my mind and use Flash. It really might come down to a time crunch issue. Also, I’m giving fair warning to anyone that I know that has decent JavaScript skills. I will probably spend the next month pestering you with JavaScript questions.
Good list of pros and cons… and a great idea to run out the internal debate in this public way since you’re getting practice for a conversation that will come up more than once as a professional web designer.
I’ll throw out two points.
First, the rumors of Flash’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Nearly 100% of *computers* run Flash. And Flash is working toward the same future as HTML5 in many ways — getting better on processing power, and leveraging XML much more heavily.
Second is a question: where are people going to be accessing the site you’re talking about? The importance of context can’t be overestimated. So a portfolio of work is most likely going to be viewed most by folks on a computer, rather than mobile… or iPad.
Again, nice post… looking forward to seeing the site (whatever tech you use).
Thanks for the comment John.
I think you are right that Flash isn’t going away like some people believe. Adobe is about to come out with CS5, and who knows what they are doing to improve Flash. Plus it is really easy to learn compared to learning how to code in JavaScript.
The site I’m doing for my project is a travel/photo site, so I realized that 99.9% of the people that view it would be on a computer. However, the reason I want it to be viewed on the other Apple products is to show the site to someone on my iPod Touch if I’m out somewhere without the computer.
I also want to build the slideshows using JavaScript because that was the one subject that I struggled with during the web design classes. I really want to improve my JavaScript skills, and I figured this would be the best way to do that.
I tend to come down on the side of “anti-Flash”. However, a decade of abuse by Flash designers and developers has gone into building that prejudice. In reality, most sites have become much better at using the Right Tool for the Right Job.
Bad Flash Example: http://humancentric.com/
I suspect HumanCentric has more Flash devs than HTML/CSS/JS devs, but I don’t see why you would build a site that’s primarily text and photos in Flash.
Good Flash Example: http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/products/free5?blogSource=en_US
Ok, the left nav could have been HTML & CSS, but using Flash for the interactive graphic makes sense. You also had a good example with interactive media at many newspaper sites.
It’s amazing what you can do with HTML/CSS/JS these days—just look Apple.com—but there are still a lot of times when Flash will give you more freedom and speed up development time.
For a portfolio, I think you made a good decision to go with JavaScript. I would recommend Colorbox (http://colorpowered.com/colorbox/) or Facebox (http://famspam.com/facebox) as good options. Both work well cross-platform, and can be pretty easy to implement. It may also be worth looking at the jQuery Cycle plugin (http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/).