HTML gone?!

MarsAttacks · 12-11-2008, 04:03 PM

Hello,

it's crazy how many new sites are done with flash. so many sites now have tons of video and animation that it feels like the future of html/css will be reserved for news/discussion board/facebook type websites! anybody else agree or disagree?

cheers

PrintDriver · 12-11-2008, 04:08 PM

Just noting the issues the GDF has with certain <ahem> Nvidia ads, if people using flash sites don't watch the bandwidth and user speeds they are gonna lose a lot of customers who won't wait for it. When I was visiting my dad, his internet access was via dialup. I had to step away from the machine before a hurt it. Usually my patience is limited to a 10 count.

Besides, you can't really make a fully interactive site or a store site in flash only.

Highway Seven · 12-11-2008, 04:27 PM

Totally disagree.

First of all, creating websites in Flash requires a much steeper learning curve than creating one in HTML/CSS. It is also much more time-consuming. Maintaining the site (updates, etc) is also much more time-consuming in Flash.

Second, Flash is overkill for most websites which only require text and images to get their message across.

Third, HTML/CSS sites are much more easily crawled by SE bots.

Fourth, Flash-sites have accessibility issues.

The list goes on and on...

Ned · 12-11-2008, 05:03 PM

The massive use of Flash banners, galleries, and product imagery on major corporate sites these days is just awful. As a web user, I use the internet all the time to gather all kinds of information. When you need to know about something (non-encyclopedia type information, more like "what are the features of this model" or something like that), you simply "google it" and look it up on the web, right?

That's a regular habit for me, but these days more than half the links I go to I shut down right away and go somewhere else, because these manufacturers expect you to wait for minutes while they try to wow you with their soft transition photo galleries. What's the point? I'm here for information and content, not to see how smoothly you can transition from one picture to another!! If I want to see a picture of your product (which I usually do), I want it to actually show up. Dumbtards...

MarsAttacks · 12-11-2008, 05:47 PM

i totally agree! the only flash sites i've ever really enjoyed, were the ones that could and should have been done with css!

MarsAttacks · 12-11-2008, 05:48 PM

but i'm afraid with faster bandwidths, will come more and more flash sites!

Ned · 12-11-2008, 06:29 PM

Psh. My ISP hasn't gotten any faster.

PrintDriver · 12-11-2008, 11:43 PM

Adobe constantly does that to me. My DSL ISP autoconnects at the first band-width available (I live in the sticks and the trunkline is mighty tight out here.). On some days I get the slower speed and the Adobe flash images bog down so bad I can't get to their tech support site. On those same days, the GDF is intolerable due to those banner ads. Sometimes I can reset the modem and luck out, others not so much.

Not everyone has the latest greatest computer equipment, designer size monitors, high speed cable and the luxury of fast connect speeds. Designers tend to forget that.

The other thing they forget is to refresh their browser view. What does the website look like when viewed by someone else for the first time, not loaded from your cache.

Flash in moderation is fun. If the industry has any brains at all though, they won't go that route totally.

Highway Seven · 12-11-2008, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarsAttacks

but i'm afraid with faster bandwidths, will come more and more flash sites!

I really don't think flash will increase as bandwidth increases.

hewligan · 12-12-2008, 12:04 AM

The overwhelming majority of the web is HTML/CSS/Javascript/Images. Flash stuff actually makes up the minority, and that's not going to change because there are very good reasons why most stuff shouldn't be Flash.

Then, if you look at most of the Flash stuff out there, it could have been done using HTML/CSS/Javascript/Images. And standards compliant languages keep getting more and more powerful, while Flash is largely just offering easier ways to do the same stuff it did 5 years ago.

Having said all that, there is some genuinely cool stuff that's been done with Flash out there. But, not a lot.

Also, while it's about 8 years old (which is approximately a million years in web time), this is still the greatest thing ever done with Flash. Ever.