Peter Mac And Associates

Getting rid of Flash

The first model of the Volkswagen Beetle ran off the production line in 1938. The name ‘Volkswagen’ means ‘People’s Car’. The Beetle was just that. It served families of all sizes very well. Given the genius of the engine in the back and the boot in the front meant you could fit two small kids in the boot and the family dog on the parcel tray. The practical, functional nature of the Beetle meant it would go on to remain in production into the 21st century. Hurray I say for simplicity in invention.

Fast forward to the age of the Internet. In the mid 90′s people started using the web to display information about their companies. There was an ‘About Us’ page, a ‘Contact Us’ page, the usual smattering of services and product pages and a general acceptance that the website was like a corporate brochure i.e. static and something you left on the reception desk if people wanted a read while they waited.

Then the graphic designers had an idea! “What if we could make it move?” “way cool dude! We can have a moving site introduction where people visit the site they’re told to wait while the intro uploads. Then when it does there’ll be sound and moving pictures and maybe even like a cartoon. That’s like so totally awesome dude. Let’s do it!”

And thus in a very non Ferdinand Porsche moment, Flash was invented. Unfortunately, it’s a technology that didn’t live up to it’s name (flash in a pan…gone in a flash, quick as a flash etc.)

Granted, Internet speeds have come a long way since the mid 90′s. I’ve got more bytes available for me to download every month than I know what do do with. And they’re fast too. But…when I visit a website I want information. I want to know what time the trains leaving Sandringham station leave at. I don’t want a 30 second corporate bullshit advert about how you’re improving the train networks. If I need that information, I’ll click on a link that says “How we’re improving the network”.

What happened web design in the 90′s and into the naughties is that graphic designers who were used to designing for the print medium got on the band wagon, got their Macs and their Dreamweavers and started pumping out websites because clients looked on websites as extensions of their brochure ware. It was a snug fit. It’s interesting to see the number of sites that still use the MM roll-over tags from the clunky output that was MacroMedia’s flaghsip web tool. What they didn’t realise is by looking under the hood of the sites they built, how much clunky kludge was embedded in web pages that didn’t need it.

Moving pictures – OK, if you really have to. But don’t embed important links such as ‘click here for our product catalog’ in them. I run a browser that deliberately blocks moving images and I’m not going to see or use the link you’ve embedded in your flash movie.

Recently Apple CEO and proprietary software evangelist Steve Jobs gave a rant about how bad Flash is. All credibility to his argument was lost where he pointed to the proprietary nature of Adobe’s Flash technology. The words stones and glass-houses come to mind. Reading through his arguments, in between the lines I get the distinct feeling that Jobs would like Astronauts some day to look out the window and see a planet in the shape of an apple (with a bite taken out of it).

I like technology, I like inventions, but only if they’re for the betterment of technology and only if they’re available to all. Flash isn’t – So next time you’re looking to get a website built, or you’re working on one for a customer. Tell em to ease off on the flash…Pleeease!!