jarango

More reasons to be conservative about using Flash

I’ve always been cautious about recommending Flash for use on public sites. Although I think it has valid uses (demonstrations that require animation, for example), for the most part it is used as “instant excitement”. I believe that this is because there are people that believe that things on a screen have to move if anyone’s ever going to notice them. In other words, they think that if the web were more like TV, they’d be able to sell more.

Here’s a good reason to be conservative about the use of Flash: it seems that Microsoft will release a new version of Internet Explorer early next year that will address Eolas Technologies’ lawsuit. In order to make IE compliant, MS will be changing the way it displays active content, including Flash. This will probably wreak havoc on hundreds of thousands of sites that use Flash.

Here’s an MSDN article advising developers on what to do about it. My advice: before putting a Flash item on a page ask yourself: “Does this really need to swirl/swoosh/rush/shift/turn/zoom/fade/fuzz, or is it just a lame attempt to make something boring seem exciting?”

October 22, 2003 | Archived in Design