To Flash or not to Flash?

Designers have always been pushing the proverbial uphill when faced with unregulated development of operating systems (OS), various browsers and different server technology. This haphazard evolution has been the cause of many a hissy fit, when a designer realises that their meticulous work looks great in their main browser, but falls apart in another.

Flash is one tool that has become very popular for several reasons. It’s possibly the best tool for animation for the web, it has very powerful maths features, can incorporate video and other media, can create very small file sizes (good for fast download), and a flash file will look the same regardless of OS or browser – assuming you have the appropriate flash plugin.

Flash was the application that first introduced many a designer to the concept of symbols and instances. Each instance is merely a direction to use the same symbol, and potentially apply several extra characteristics to the symbol, such as colour, transparency and even variable values. The result is that file sizes dropped dramatically, because the core information for each symbol only needs to be included once.

So, even at a glance, Flash is a remarkable tool. But as the web community matures, more and more people are calling for cleaner coding, faster downloads, more useful content, and less time-wasting waiting for fancy graphics to download which offer no real value to the user. These issues will still matter with broadband (if we ever get it), because our attention spans will catch up pretty quickly, and expectations will rise.

Often enough, the choice to enter a flash site or an html site comes up. This approach should satisfy all users, but it’s worth making sure that the extra effort involved in building two sites is worth it. It often is, and often not. The upshot is that if insufficient consideration is given to the various issues in the planning stages, you’ll end up spending much more time and effort mopping up the bits’n’pieces down the track.

If you’re playing around, jump in, but if you have something to communicate, it probably pays to think carefully – for example a photographer’s portfolio might need a more visually creative approach than a geek’s blog, though not necessarily…

Sites for this month:

• www.flashkit.com
  (flash tutorials, resources and more.)
• http://demo.arcww.ca/sites/lblaunch/
  (really cool interface, be a little patient with it if you’re on dial up.)

See ya! Julian Smith

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