After several tweets about Flash tonight, I’ve realized that it’s nearly impossible to make any real point in 140 characters. Flash has been a hot button issue for web developers since it first emerged. On the one hand, it provides reliable, cross-browser functionality, on the other hand, it’s in-accessible, overused, and a go-to option for people too lazy to learn javascript.
Overall, I would be very happy to see most Flash content die a horrible death, doubly so for sites that are 100% Flash. The idealistic side of me would love to see a rich, interactive web that runs on standards alone. However, the pragmatic side of me accepts that browser plug-ins aren’t going any where for a while.
While ranting about how horrific Flash is has become very popular, it’s important to keep the following points in mind:
- Flash was the only cross-browser animation option for years. While we have an arsenal of slick tools at our disposal today, 5 years ago Flash was pretty much it.
- Most of the people with bad Flash content likely don’t know it’s bad. We web developers tend to forget that 99% of the people online have never heard of web standards or accessibility. We tend to be the most vocal on the web, so we assume we represent the majority, but we don’t.
- Most of the people with bad Flash content likely don’t care. Most businesses would consider 90% of users good enough. Especially given that the anti-Flash crowd is still demographically similar. A website for tech-savvy 20 somethings will lose money with a Flash site. A site selling infomercial crap to boomers probably won’t.
- Finally, HTML5 is not only a year or so away, it’s also not 100% on par with Flash or Silverlight. Want to access a webcam? Want 3d graphics support and inverse kinematics? Want to display a video that isn’t square? If so, a browser plug-in may still be the best option.
- Every obnoxious thing developers do in Flash will be done in HTML5. It’s only matter of time before you see obnoxious mortgage ads, animated splash pages and lame navigation systems using the canvas tag instead of the embed tag.
- Most business owners don’t care about losing business from iPad and iPhone users. Chances are, if they have a 100% flash site, they lost your business years ago.
I know that any comments posted here will likely be telling me why Flash sucks, but that doesn’t make me wrong. I would love to see Flash and SilverLight limited to a few rich experiences, but it’s not going to happen any time soon. How many table-based websites do you still see out there?
Like the transition from tables to CSS, the transition from Flash will be long, painful and expensive. It will be worth it, and we will all be better for it, but this battle will be won by even-tempered education. If we want the web to get better, we need to tone down the whiny “It doesn’t work on my iPad” bullshit and build a solid argument that business owners and content-providers can understand.
I’ll go ahead and out myself as the one who got Ian fired up about this tonight:
http://twitter.com/jlbruno/status/16349916120
First, I’ll say that I think “It doesn’t work on my iPad” is a pretty solid argument against Flash these days. The iPad/iPhone isn’t going away, which means Flash isn’t a solid cross browser/cross platform solution anymore.
Second, I think you over-reacted to my original tweet. I never said Flash shouldn’t be used. I have no problem with the fact that I have a device that doesn’t run that particular plugin. I do have a problem that I visited six different websites for local business and I was only able to view one of them.
I’m certainly not ranting about how bad Flash is. Flash can be great when used the proper way—as a progressive enhancement to existing content, the same way Javascript should be used.
You argue that these 5 local business might not give a shit to lose my business. I argue that they likely have no idea they lost it because their website wasn’t accessible on a popular new computing platform.
I agree…no whiny bullshit. Let’s target the people who don’t get it, and let me know about the problem. Pretty sure that’s what my tweet was meant to do (it certainly wasn’t aimed at the developers like yourself, who are already aware of the problem).
Jeff,
Keep in mind that I’m a sarcastic ass. The over-reaction was 100% intentional and I assumed that you would remember I’m a complete ass when reading it.
That being said, I think that the “It doesn’t work on my iPad” argument is BS for a few reasons.
#1. It makes the issue product specific. Business owners can ignore standards much easier if they thing the problem is isolated to a single device. In reality, “It doesn’t work on anything mobile” is more effective.
#2. Making the issue Flash vs iPad encourages other devices to support Flash as a means to differentiate themselves. Android has already started marketing Flash support in response to Apple’s marketing.
#3. We need to make the argument pro-standards rather than anti-flash. Arguments that are solely negative are rarely well received.
#4. Finally, use points that non-tech people will get. For example: Business owners may not give a shit about iPads, but they probably have a vested interest in SEO.
Ian, I love how you so aptly captured the typical business owner’s through process, especially as part of point #3 in your post - “90% of users is good enough”.
This is so wrong. This is the wrong argument to be having.
I cringe when I see ALL FLASH websites, not because I’m running FlashBlock and its an extra step for me to get their content, but because they’ve got all this content that is doing NOTHING for their SEO.
Nothing stings me more than having to tell one of my customers that they really need to redevelop their website if their goal is to leverage their site for SEO. A blog can get them part of the way there, but then they’re not able to link directly to relevant sections of their website without saying “…and then click on the barking dog, and then the spinning radiation icon, and hold down shift when you click on the pi symbol”.