What Flash is for

[farscapeone]

When it comes to Flash in web design people tend to use it even if they actually don't need it. Now that JavaScript Frameworks like jQuery offer a wide range of plugins that can do some basic transition and other visual effect, there's no need to use flash for that kind of simple tasks.
But don't get me wrong Flash is not entirely useless. YouTuba and other video sites are the proof that Flash can be useful. What about full flash sites than? Well just look and some examples of full flash web sites.

http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
http://agencynet.com/
http://eu.wrangler.com/bluebell/
http://www.gm.ca/gm/english/vehicles/buick/behind-the-beauty/feature?adv=94437 (fast connection needed)
http://www.kiluka.ch/

That's what Flash is for So next time you are thinking of using flash for a simple transition image effect, think again.

 

[mrmunkey]

Wow very cool sites, I especially like the water one's load page and the wrangler one is really interesting

 

[yuoxyuo]

My Flash Website:

http://www.YUOxYUO.com

 

[farscapeone]

@yuoxyuo: Please don't use this thread to promote your work there is a forum section just for that and it's called Review My Site . This thread is not a showcase of flash sites. I posted a few just as an example to clarify my point.

 

[cattrain]

Flash is dying. You don't need flash even for video or more complex transitions anymore.

YouTube is slowly switching to HTML5. www.youtube.com/html5

For the more complex transitions, see www.chromeexperiments.com.

I understand that flash has its place, but before you use it, anytime you use it, think twice.

 

[farscapeone]

I would really like to see somebody make something like this (http://www.2advanced.com/) with HTML5 and any kind of JavaScript.

 

[lemon-tree]

Nice website, the only problem is that it uses ~20% CPU, which is a little excessive when it is only a few animations. Admittedly, that is running on the Mac version of Flash, which is known to be a lot less optimised than its Window's counterpart; this is also why I have Flash disabled by default with ClickToFlash.
You are also correct that it would be very difficult to create a HTML5 version of that site; what HTML5 really needs is a good design tool for creative design that doesn't require extensive coding knowledge, much like Adobe offers for Flash. Unfortunately, Adobe are the only people who can really create great design tools like we need. At some point they will probably realise the huge potential profit from such a tool and may consider offering both Flash and HTML5 tools. So, HTML5 still has a way to go before it can be considered a major rival in complex websites and applications, but for many smaller sites it offers sufficient functions to avoid having to resort to Flash. I certainly can't see HTML5 replacing Flash for online games any time soon, but for most other applications it is very capable.
That said, I can't see any big potential for Flash growth in the future: a lot of companies are moving from Flash and unless Adobe changes their position it is possible that - over time - it will become the minority product.
It's therefore no surprise that Apple is shunning flash, we have been waiting for years for an efficient version of flash and Adobe have failed to deliver anything remotely close. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Adobe and I enjoy using many of their other tools, but their approach to Flash has been wrong for a while now.

 

[yuoxyuo]

@leviathon. I wasn't trying to promote my website. You said "next time you are thinking of using flash for a simple transition image effect, think again." I disagreed, so I showed you an example of what you could do with flash versus what you can't do. That's all.

 

[bloodhound15]

i like flash you can make nice websites with flash
i cant make things with flash
you can let things move with flash i like that

wesley

 

[nzdesign]

Flash is perfect for graphic designers such as myself to have a stunning website that would take years to try to re produce in using other means. In a matter of 2 days of learning I managed to create www.nzdesign.co.nr . (not great but not terrible)

Yes there is the adobe monopoly on flash and yes it can be demanding on cpu however...

The current way one is forced to use code to make a decent website graphical website can be crazy. There is not a whole lot of intuitiveness to the code and trying to do graphical positioning can be a nigthmare... not to mention trying to make it compatible with all the stupid browsers.

With flash, what I see is what I get as well as what others get. In addition, it saves me many many many hours of trying to learn 3-5 different languages.

yaa for flash, I hope it survives.

 

[lemon-tree]

The current way one is forced to use code to make a decent website graphical website can be crazy. There is not a whole lot of intuitiveness to the code and trying to do graphical positioning can be a nigthmare... not to mention trying to make it compatible with all the stupid browsers.

On the contrary, there are many tools for creating beautiful HTML websites, just none are really ready with the HTML5 spec yet.
Dreamweaver
Rapidweaver
etc...
I have also seen Photoshop used to good effect for website creation.

Flash is perfect for graphic designers such as myself to have a stunning website that would take years to try to re produce in using other means. In a matter of 2 days of learning I managed to create www.nzdesign.co.nr . (not great but not terrible)

Your site does look OK, although it is definitely on the small side. However, to be honest there is nothing there that I can see that you couldn't do very easily with CSS and Javascript libraries. As Leviathon said in his first post in this thread, Flash really isn't needed any more for simple animations.

 

[farscapeone]

OK people, have you considered Flash as a part of Adobe Flex and AIR technologies? What do you think about them?

I personally used Flex if few of my projects and, although it's not perfect (it's relatively new), it could become really powerful in the future. If you don't know how Flex apps look like just go to x10's chat, it's made in Flex. Google for more details
On the other hand, AIR is a great idea knowing that you could use the same code for both web and cross platform desktop applications.

 

[dbdbdesigns]

Flash was the bomb at one time, and yes it still has it's advantages. I mean it's hard to rip something or steal the whole idea. But I think that's about it. Flash is all about eye candy, aesthetics. Functionality, not so much. I mean it can do stuff, but nothing that can get the job done as quickly as html, php, java, etc.

Flash is great for designers I guess, vector artwork has it's limits though, especially flash.

In the end, one tool will never do it all, although photoshop is pretty close

If I have to use flash, I'll use it in the smallest manner possible, like banners. But that's it.

 

[essellar]

The thing about Flash, see, is that it started out as a lightweight way to make Shockwave files (thus the SWF file extension), which were a compact packaging of Director movies. That's what it has always been for -- creating interactive animations for the web rather than for multmedia CDs (remember them?). Things like accessibility, document structure, and so forth were never part of the deal, and what little lip service has been paid to accessibility has come late to the game. There are other, cleaner and structurally sounder ways to create similar pixel-perfect representations of your webular meisterstuck -- like SVG, f'rinstance, which will do a perfect screen scaling for you. But there lies a problem, and it's in the solution.

I have a couple of machines I regularly use to wander around the intarweb. One has a screen resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels, the other is an 800 by 600 netbooky thing. The last thing I want is a web page that scales to full screen on both machines -- one will have me standing back four feet to read anything, and the other would nearly require eye-to-screen contact. Neither option is cool, guys. Howzabout you let me decide what size I want the text to be, which machine to use and when, and you make your site work to my satisfaction on both. That means using HTML properly, folks.

By the bye: I've just finished de-Flashifying a site that took some artsy designer type nearly three months to deliver as a SWF (on a work-for-hire, so don't get on me about infringement). A pure HTML (well, PHP on the server, but pure HTML in the browser) representation that was indistinguishable from the original (except to people with low vision or limited hand-eye coordination) took me less than a day to code, including slides & fades and such using progressive enhancement with CSS3 and JS. I wouldn't want to code a game that included a lot of collision detection that way, but that's where Flash actually ought to be used. And yeah, it sucks that we need to use -moz-this, -webkit-that and filter(theOtherThing), but it ain't rocket surgery.

 

[aaronsrdoc]

Flash definitely has it's advantages and disadvantages. On the upside, it's very easy to create some great and eye catching effects, but on the downside it's slow as hell. I'm glad the day of full-Flash websites is over, they were cool, but there are now many more efficient ways to achieve the same thing. Flash is still a great animation tool, but not so much as a web design tool.

EDIT:
As for Flex, I DO like Flex. I've used Flex in a variety of projects for clients, and in certain cases AIR.

 

[farscapeone]

What about Flash animations to JavaScript/HTML5 on the fly converter?

http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/06/smokescreen-project-promises-flash-without-the-plug-in/

 

[jointpvforum]

These are cool and interesting sites, I really like waterlife, more or less some of it are still made on AS2 versions and the fact is some Flash sites loads slow but indeed worth waiting for...Thanks.

here's my papervision 3d site check this out! http://www.jointmediacreativedesigns.elementfx.com

 

[alternativo]

yeah

 

[callumacrae]

Flash is VERY good at using too much CPU, being insecure and generally messing about search engines.

I don't like flash

Check apple.com/html5 - there's some impressive stuff on there, and none of it uses flash.

~Callum

 

[mefm2010]

There's some real ignorance on display amongst some of the flash hater replies here. In reality the new functionality offered by html5 (e.g video, local storage, sockets etc) was available in flash over 7 years ago, and many versions back.

Flash will always have an advantage in adding new technology, and being able to to update players quickly to use it, over the extremely slow pace of w3c advances. By the time html5 browsers are common enough that most people can use the features, it will be 10 years behind what flash does.

It is of course correct that many simple interactive elements do not now need flash, but cutting edge advances (e.g peer to peer video such as used by chatroulette) that push forward the boundaries of what can be done on the web will always need plugins like flash or silverlight

Alex, there is nothing impressive at the html5 apple demo's, these are like childrens work done in flash last decade, look at the sites on thefwa.com, these are the pinnacle of talent and creativity on the web. Also have a look at http://www.swfhead.com/flash/ these kind of advanced web experiences can only be done by the best flash developers