Sometime in the last couple weeks I started noticing that my browser would hang while loading some Flash content, and since I’ve been too busy to diagnose the error1 or even just to reinstall the Flash player I’ve been surfing with Flash disabled via the built in Flash block feature in Camino.
A funny thing happened between noticing sites loading faster and lots of ads missing — prompted by the sight of the Razorfish redesign I noticed how many web development agencies had sites that were just big empty flash movies and thus all looked the same. Nothing but a big empty browser window, with a big “F” or play button, and sometimes a background color other then black.
Clockwise from top left: Razorfish, R/GA, Schematic, WDDG, Organic, The Chopping Block, EVB, Big Spaceship — all looking nearly identical.
Camino’s Flash blocking option, similar to the flashblock extension for Firefox isn’t exactly disabling Flash or uninstalling it, instead the loading of the file is delayed until you explicitly hover over the content and click the play button. A behavior very similar to the old post lawsuit ‘click to play’ MSIE behavior. Sites built with a mix of Flash content and standard HTML like YouTube [below] degrade quite well under these conditions. Sites using a heavier mix of Flash like the Adobe or Hasselblad sites may look a bit sparse, but still completely useable without stating the flash movies.
However, there seems to be a contingent of studios that are still thinking that 100% by 100% Flash movies are the best way to represent themselves on their site and show off their skills. A lot of strides have been made the last few years in flash searchability, SEO and indexing, accessibility, history2 and browser integration — but when it hits the street its still plugin based content and as a result there may either be hurdles for clients to jump in order to see the content, and even if the hurdles are small [like hitting a play button before seeing the full content] the immediate impression of having to do so, or seeing nothing but an empty browser window may not be the best foot to put forward.
Now don’t get me wrong, these agencies do fine work — I work at or have worked at many of them. And I’m not a zealot that normally rallies against Flash — i think it has its uses though my own feet are firmly planted on one side of the aisle. I’m just wondering out loud if its not time to rethink the approach and reliance on one tool over the other or mix of them by some of these firms.
[OK, and I’m having a little chuckle at Flash’s expense, too]
1 looks to be a hang on a cross site security check
2 no comments from coworkers in the peanut gallery!
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don’t forget Silverlight will balls things up even further.
Comment by: zedzdead @ Nov 14, 06:05 AM #Maybe I’m just not surfing the web as much as I once had, but I haven’t come across many cases 100% Silverlight sites like I do 100% Flash sites. Unless its a showcase site, or something that really does require Silverlight [it worked for the Olympics, try that with AJAX alone] I haven’t seen it. Perhaps to Microsoft’s dismay, but the plugin penetration just isn’t high enough for a site like those called out above to think it would be a good idea.
Ultimately the point I’m trying to make here isn’t an anti-Flash or an anti-plugin one. They’re just tools whose use should be evaluated when building a site. Instead I posted to raise awareness of the “sameness” of all these sites, and that if your navigation, branding, message, purpose and emotion is all wrapped up behind plugin based content that one consequence of that is the initial experience and impression of users with flashblock enabled.
Comment by: Chris Casciano @ Nov 14, 10:05 AM #I wonder if a tool like swfobject could possibly be extended to detect if Flashblock is enabled. A number of the agency sites you link to have non-flash HTML-only versions which will be displayed in the absence of Flash or the appropriate version of the Flash player, so the effort to do the right thing in terms of SEO and accessibility is there in those cases.
As for the “sameness” of all these agency sites, I agree with you. I think there’s still a bit of the dot-com era mentalty where a site needs to be an “immersive experience” with “wow factor” and “pop” in the agency world, and Flash is the go-to tool to get you there. With new developments in Javascript engine speed and CSS inching closer to the 3.0 spec with each browser upgrade cycle, I’d like to see sites like this move away from the all or nothing Flash approach and embrace some of these newer capabilities that browsers are offering. Sites like these were pushing the boundries by embracing Flash back then, and they should be continuing to push new boundries today.
Comment by: Michael Bester @ Nov 14, 10:23 AM #Hey Michael,
Two issues.
I don’t know that it is possible to detect what is going on, but I don’t know enough about the flashblock code to know what’s up. It seems to just delay the handoff of the plugin content to and drawing of the player so maybe you could detect that you can’t talk to the Flash movie after some time and then instead bring back the alternate content [by saving it somewhere instead of just obliterating it]? I don’t know without investigating.
But more importantly to the user experience is that its just so easy to activate the Flash by hitting the play button that I’ll do so if I want the content I think is behind it. As a user I’m going to usually go for the plugin based content after the fact and trying to give me the non-plugin content instead is probably the wrong approach. I want the YouTube video, I want to see the new Razorfish site, but for technical reasons I want to choose wisely before just loading everything.
Comment by: Chris Casciano @ Nov 14, 10:38 AM #Point taken.
Though being a Technical Wise Man™, you are certainly in the minority of users that not only is aware there is a tool available that allows you to choose which Flash content to view, but actually uses that tool from time to time.
Comment by: Michael Bester @ Nov 14, 11:01 AM #