Flash
This is not meant to be a tutorial in Flash, or the use of vector animations, but rather a discussion of the use of Flash. Flash is very cool, and also happens to communicate very well, when it is used properly. Superfluous, gratuitous use of Flash is a waste of bandwidth. Long winded Flash intros are more annoying than anything, especially those that neglect to provide a “skip” button. Setting the gratuity factor aside, there are some other considerations with Flash.
The case for (or against) Flash remains open. The simple fact is that while not everyone has big pipes and lots of bandwidth, there are things you can do with Flash that you simply cannot do with, umm, not Flash. These are becoming fewer, and Flash still has some of the drawbacks mentioned. The web design course does not include even an introduction to Flash, as a couple of weeks is not enough to scratch the surface.
Plugins
A main consideration with Flash, Shockwave, and SVG is the use of plugins for browsers. No plugin, no image. Many older Flash sites also use plugin detection which is faulty: the plugin may be present, but newer, or the browser/browser version may not be on the ‘approved’ list for the plugin. There are sites I’ve visited where it seems that no matter what you do, you have to download and install the plugin every time. I don’t go there anymore.
Validation
As of Flash MX2004, the method used to get Flash into a page does not validate. The default use of the <embed> tag prevents validation. With new versions of Macromedia Flash© coming out yearly or so, the validation problem, as well as some accessibility problems, may indeed be solved. Then again, maybe not.
Drew McLellan’s Flash Satay is an article describing one method for solving the validation problem. It is also less intimidating code-wise.
Somewhere out there is a javascript method which also gets Flash to validate, but I will leave it for now.
Accessibility
As Flash matures (version MX 2004 and later) it’s accessibility is improving. Not that it is totally inaccessible, but it do need a lot of improvement. The fact is that it often acts as one big image, and any text is unavailable for screen readers. There are/may be other considerations, but again, i’ll leave it for further investigation.
Bandwidth
Flash still works best with lots of bandwidth, or connection speed. I used to simply avoid visiting MINIUSA, although I love the site, and my Cooper, because I was on a dial-up connection. Bandwidth is simply another reason to think hard before opting for Flash.
