The Debate of Flash, Usability, and Standards
Hey All,
I thought today, I would touch on the debate between Flash and CSS/Accessibility, based on my own work experiences. I would also like to announce that I will be releasing a tutorial/review of Microsoft’s new suite of Expression, as well as the accompanying Silverlight. I was fortunate enough to work on a project for Microsoft, and learned about these tools first hand. I would like to point out, that I was not behind the design however, and would have made a few changes. However, I will be touching on my concerns regarding this as well.
Until I’ve worked everything out on what will be shown in my next Article, I thought I would focus on a few things that have been bothering me at work. You see, I recently started working at an online marketing agency. This means that they don’t focus on the web as much as they focus on making things look “hot”, that being a direct quote from our lead designer.
You see, upon leaving the bank, and arriving at this agency I entered somewhat bitter from the corporate world. When I saw how they operated, as to how the bank operated it was a complete shock to experience such a laid back, great environment to work in. I want to stress this now, because I love my job, and this is by no means a post about how I hate my job, but instead a clash of opinions. So, on that note, let’s get started.
I came in during a rather large turnover, for various reasons. It wasn’t so much a bad place to work, as much as several situations at first. As a result my first project was a problematic dating site, built in ASP. This was problematic, as my job, being hired as a programmer, was to convert the access database to MySQL. This issue, however, was not even an issue in this job. You see this site had been worked on before me, twice before. An attempt to move it to a MySQL database had already been made, with the failed work still showing. It was during this time, did I learn how easily it was to break the layout my new employers had created. It was driven through tables, in a delicate balance of sizing and spacers. If you pushed this layout by just one pixel, it broke unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Things disappeared, navigation dropped to a completely different location, and the text breaking the layout disappeared due to poor CSS.
When I raised my concerns over this, I was told their concerns were not to build the layout in divs and CSS (as at this time, I’d pointed that the layout would be easier to work with, easier to maintain, and quicker to implement new features) as tables were far easy to work with when building and they’d deal with any other problems later on. They turned away and went back to designing for more major projects, and finishing all the flash elements, like the basic rollovers for the navigation. It was at this point did I start to realize that my own web interests may clash. Needless to say, I worked through it (among a dozen other issues) and got the job done.
The next issue came with the Microsoft, as we were in the designing stages. I had raised the question regarding what we would do with all screen resolutions under 1280 x 720. I was told they were merely designing for Microsoft’s resolutions and that anyone underneath that wouldn’t be considered. Again, I had problems with this because I am an advocate for accessibility. I am still learning, but ever seen learning my fiancée was going blind, and often struggled to used the internet due to lack of support and hence why she didn’t understand why it was so important to me, I’ve been learning more and more. I still have a long way to go, but I know some of the basics, and one of those is cutting off anyone who may view a website differently. Again I was shocked. I didn’t understand, at the time, why they would do this.
So again, today I learned of a new social networking project we’ve begun. I do believe it could be very successful, and I am, right now, in support of it. Although the idea is very rough, it could really work out well. However, I then learned they wanted to build this new app, with hopes that it could be the next facebook. Although I don’t see it being a 1.6 Billion, and rising, application, I do see it being somewhat successful.
At least, I did believe that, until I learned they would eventually want this whole site to be designed entirely in flash, and designed for any screen resolution at least 1024 x 768. I could see this being the one thing that could make this project fail in the long haul. I believe in flash, and I believe when used correctly at the right places it’s a great tool. I just don’t think I agree with the concept of sites being designed for flash, and then the HTML being considered secondary, if at all. (As was the case with the Expression project)
I do believe there is a time and a place for certain resolution requirements, but with something that is hoped to be the next big social networking item, I think they need to stop trying to make things look “hot” and “sexy” and instead, focus on allowing as many users as possible to access the site as easily as possible with as little hassle as possible.
My question to you all is, what do you think? When the goal is to make something look good, do we need to sacrifice accessibility, and usability? Or are standards, XHTML, and CSS holding designers back from making something unique and amazing? Is full flash sites still popular, or have they run their course? Could a social networking program be successful in 100% flash?
What do you all think? You know my views, so I’m interested to know yours.
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
“When the goal is to make something look good, do we need to sacrifice accessibility, and usability?”
No. Why would you? They are not mutually exclusive (in my opinion).
“are standards, XHTML, and CSS holding designers back from making something unique and amazing?”
No. Enough examples around the net.
“Is full flash sites still popular, or have they run their course?”
Personally I hate them. Cannot see any use for them. Except maybe for a game on a children’s site or something. Even then I would make it only a sub-part or sub-site next to a normal website.
“Could a social networking program be successful in 100% flash?”
Maybe, but my guess is that it is a lot more difficult. As an example. How am I going to bookmark a page to send/show it to a friend?
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
Oh, I feel your pain. I took a position with a marketing/advertising agency last year, and it’s been a frustrating experience.
My #1 priority has been to ween us off of designing full-flash sites and try to educate my co-workers on why those are a such bad idea, and what the benefits of standards-based development are.
I’m making headway, but most people like to work within their comfort zone - this has been and will continue to be a slow process.
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
Matthijs - I agree 100% with you, which is why I am so conflicted. I just wanted to get the thoughts on how others viewed it.
Bryan - It is difficult. I’m making a lot of headway with the new hires, who 2 out of 3 already share my thought process. Just a shame we’re not the one’s running this place.
Regardless it’s amazing to me, to us get so many clients. We could be working some of the largest companies in Canada, and the flash stuff is what sells. I guess as long as things look cool, when it comes to marketing… Nothing else matters. Both from the marketing outlook, and the business outlook.
I find it fascinating though.
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
I think the main problem with this is that they have “grown too big” to learn the new stuff. Accessibility and usability is all about getting them (our bosses and specially our clients) educated. Just my 2 cents
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
“Could a social networking program be successful in 100% flash?”
I don’t think so. Many people have grown frustrated with MySpace and its design and it doesn’t even have the ‘weight’ of a full flash interface. Facebook seems to be a possible MySpace killer, and its fairly light and fast and its design allows for the addition of new services and now applications. virb is another option, and it seems to be built around web standards and light, fast XHTML. I don’t think the average user wants to deal with the slowness of a full flash interface for social networking.
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
If you haven’t already, you should read the first 5 chapters of “Web Accessibility Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance”. (http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=1590596382
It really sets the stage as to why not considering accessibility will hobble your site. After that, you’ll probably want to read the whole thing. He makes many compelling arguments you could probably use as ammo in your workplace interactions on this subject.
He’s really opened my mind to the fact that accessibility isn’t all about disabilities, it’s about different abilities and making a site that accommodates them.
It blows my mind that social sites are being made that aren’t accessible - they’re social sites! You want tons of people to visit them so why would you make it so they cant visit? That would limit revenue!
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
Ouch, sounds painful, Andrew.
I think you’re absolutely right - the site needs to be built in HTML. How can you convince your bosses? Talk about Search Engine Optimization - Google will never find individuals pages if they’re tucked behind Flash interfaces and have no text content. And talk about Ajax - sounds like they’d appreciate some buzzwordy goodness.
Hell, with Ajax and CSS, all the Flashy stuff they’re doing is likely possible.. and the 1% of things that might be out of JavaScript’s reach (music and video, for instance) can still be done with a bit of Flash.
Do your best, and kudos for trying. But if you face the stubbornness of a team stuck in 1998 just doing what they’ve always done, you can always go along with it and enjoy watching it go down in flames. Just remember to practice your “I told you so” speech.
Want an avatar? Get a gravatar! • You can link to this comment
I like flash a lot:
- you can build sites as you want them to be
- you can serve greate usability
- and even accessibility is given with just one plug in
but flash is front-end, so there will never be a social site 100% made in flash (you still need a db back-end etc.) ;o)
Anyway, i’ve read of ways to make a flashsite even with the ability to use browsers back button and that SE can crawl the content. I will put it on my list and try to code an example over the summer (if i find some bored spare time). untill then i will stick to CSS + xHTML + JS (a.k.a. Ajax) :o)