Flash Dance

30th May 2007..

 

I have always been a fan of flash when tweens were a million frames long and the intro took 5 hours to load – but that’s the designer in me. There has long been a belief within the web standards community that Flash is part of a different world. While all approaches have limitations and drawbacks, Flash has been scorned to the point that many refuse to acknowledge its benefits, albeit mainly design ones in the early years. Ultimately, this has led to the creation of a virtual separation among web designers/developers; those who use Flash use it exclusively and those who don�t ever give it a second thought, you only need to listen to Dr John and myself here a No 9�s at the beginning of web projects to feel the line.

Although the option of the hybrid (part Flash, part HTML) site had always existed, it�s never really made it far past the typical Flash intro on a corporate homepage. Throughout the history of Flash on the web, the technology has always been intended to be embedded within HTML. Yet it has often seemed a foreign concept to use the two technologies to complement one another. View our Kingsway website as a simple example.

Eventually, a few web designers and developers realised that there were ways to use each technology to its advantage. Over the last several years, there has been a resurgence in the proper use of technology. Most importantly, Flash is also getting its due. hurrah!

Slowly but surely, Flash is finding its way into the standardista’s toolkit, and it�s happening in a very exciting way. There�s no need to convince Mr. Web Standards that he should start building full-scale Flash sites. Flash is easily making a new home for itself, not as an alternative, but as a supplement.

Successful integration is obviously possible. So how can you start integrating Flash into your workflow? The first step is to change your mindset. If you can accept that Flash is more than an all-or-nothing deal, half the battle is already won.

A good foundation should always be the first goal. By using semantic HTML, you can be sure that your content is accessible to all types of users, regardless of which user agent is present or plug-in enabled. A good example of this is our food Fix website.

A myriad of possibilities could arise from the marriage of these technologies allowing endless possibilities for using Flash in a web standards context, and creating less arguments between designer and developer.

This is a long standing argument and one which now has no right or wrong, we would be really interested in your views or questions on this subject. Which side are you on?