Design
Your Mom Uses Flash
April 7th, 2010
Written by: Jenny Messerly
Have you ever dried your hair by sticking your head out the car door? Have you used the oven to make toast or fashioned a belt with shoestrings?
Those methods all get the job done, but you have to admit they aren’t the best solutions. This is how I feel about Flash. Flash has been accomplishing things for the web that no other technology was able to for many years, but with advancements in JavaScript, CSS and HTML, where does it fit in now? When is it useful?
Flash can be useful for:
- Online games
- Interactive demos, graphs, etc.
- Complex 3D animations
- Interactive kiosks
- Educational tools
NOT entire websites. Not really on websites at all.
Today, if I was approached to develop a website using only Flash, I’d grab the cheeks of that person and say, “Why DO you wanna do that??!!!” As of now, Flash has many more failures in comparison to other technologies. If Flash chooses not to fix those things, then it will become your mom’s technology and cease to exist.
Why Flash fails:
- Must install a plugin to use it on the web. Many school and corporate business computers won’t allow you to do this.
- Very buggy causing browser crashes. John Nack from Adobe admits that Flash is flawed in a post on his blog, but there is never mention of how they will solve these problems.
- Flash files can be large and increase loading time.
- Updating files is more time consuming for developers. For this reason, content tends to be aged on Flash websites.
- Developers must purchase the Adobe Flash software to create or revise files.
- Developers must have the source file (FLA) to revise Flash on a website.
- Not compatible with most mobile devices.
- Bad for web standards.
- The “Back” button does not work when navigating within a Flash object.
- The “Make text bigger/smaller” button does not work. Users are forced to read text in the designer-specified font size.
- Flash reduces accessibility for users with disabilities.
- Flash integrates poorly with search.
We’re already seeing major players convert Flash components to newer technologies. Video sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Brightcove (provide video for the NYT and Times) have all traded their Flash players for HTML5 video. Google and Mozilla are both enabling their browsers to play full-screen embedded video files with HTML5. Many businesses, like Virgin Airlines, are forced to remove Flash, since so many mobile devices aren’t supporting it. Apple was probably the largest influence in these conversions when they announced that the iPad would not support Flash. None of Apple’s mobile devices, iPod touch, iPhone or iPad EVER plan on supporting Flash. I hope you love Legos! Do you remember when Apple left out the floppy disk drive on the iMac? It joined the “Zach Morris phone” in the prehistoric technology museum. According to Wired.com, this is Steve Jobs’ take on Adobe and Flash…
They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.
Will Flash choose to adhere to a standard-based web and find solutions to its flaws? Probably not. I suggest you find a better tool for the job.
