A Love Letter to Flash

A Love Letter to Flash
Written by Samuel in Website Building

Dearest Flash,

It's come to my attention that even in the past year, people have continued to be unkind to you, calling you useless, annoying, and the bane of a content-driven internet. I've heard that your reputation continues to be marred by certain miscreants who abuse you and say all manner of insult against you. It's not your fault that you've been mishandled and forced to do things that you were never meant to do. So I write this letter as a reaffirmation of my love to you, letting you know why I will continue to love and support you.

First, I love how you continually keep yourself fresh, changing on almost a yearly basis. I know that most of the arguments against you are based on who you were 5 years ago, when you were still dressing in Actionscript 1.0 and using those silly shape tweens (I've finally forgiven you for those). Over the last few years, you have won over this programmer's heart with object-oriented modeling, unified event handling, and a new virtual machine. Even your graphical advances like blending effects and custom anti-aliasing have made the designer in me smile. Such versatility has great potential and I've even seen it at work in more complex websites like Road Runner's (to be honest, I couldn't believe it was you at first).

Furthermore, you have brought so much beauty and yes, even accessibility, to many industries. Who would ever use YouTube if it required Real Media Player? Or who would visit Kongregate only to find Java-based games? Where would I get my creative fix if not for TheFWA.com? You continue to make photography vibrant and education fun. You've even visited the business sector, providing clean visualizations for Google Analytics and Yahoo Finance.

Now I realize that you're not for everyone and that many people use you in all the wrong ways, forcing you to be something that you're not. Know that I will never do this to you, especially since you have helped me pay many bills and you have given me more creative release than most projects do. And now that you're in Adobe's family (I have a long history with them), I'm sure our relationship will continue to grow and flourish.

Always Yours,

S. Ryan

P.S. I've heard that some developers have left you for this new gal named Silverlight. Rest assured that I will not be so hasty, and will be sticking it out with you whom I know and trust...

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Community Comments

Bijan
1/28/2008 9:55:24 AM

Haha,
very great post, glad to see that you have a nice sense of humour too.

Still don't know how I feel about flash though.

Jay
1/28/2008 5:36:00 PM

I too could easily proclaim my love for Flash. For me, there is no easier way to embed video onto sites that I maintain.

Not only that, but with Flash you know exactly what your end user will see. When you have to anticipate your users using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konqueror, and any of the other myriad of web browsers in the market, Flash is the one part of your site that you can count on to display true to your design.

I have been Flash since the days of MX. As my design skills and ambition grow, Flash grows with me. And the new integration with the Adobe toolkit, Flash is definitely one of the bigger guns in my arsenal.

Brett
1/28/2008 9:59:57 PM

Yes, Flash has been severely abused by those who like to make entire sites out of it. But that's the case with a lot of web trends. They get so far stretched from their initial intent.. kind of like how tables were whored out.

Flash is undoubtedly the reason for the advances in broadband video and the growing trend in that direction.

But to those that like to build entire sites in Flash.. please please stop.

Samuel
1/28/2008 10:24:00 PM

Hey...I build entire sites in Flash and they represent a good portion of my work :)

I think it boils down to a site's focus and target audience. Personally I'm okay with leaving a small percentage of people out (let's say those with old browsers or mobile devices) if I can provide a highly enriched experience for 95% of the site's core audience. (Yes, I know the standards folks out there will fry me for making such a statement.) Anyways, sites for photographers, creative agencies, "fun" conferences, etc. often get the full Flash treatment from me (though sometimes a HTML version is necessary as well).

Adam
1/28/2008 10:32:49 PM

I've always believed that the best flash sites are the ones where I have to right-click just to see if it's actually flash. Not to decry full-flash sites or anything, but I hate having to skip an intro, or watch some stupid tween that was already long-cheesy when I learned to do it way back in high school with Flash 5, or turn off the music.

That said, as a developer I've rarely used it, and I'm intrigued by some of the examples you've given. I don't suppose you have a favorite reference you'd like to tell me about.

Samuel
1/28/2008 11:14:12 PM

@Adam - As you noted, the problem is that Flash still has a bad reputation from the examples I gave in my first paragraph, whereas nobody points out the RoadRunner site or some of the nicer photography sites.

To use an example from a past interviewee of this site (and whose site I did in Flash several years ago), Fivestone.com works exactly as it needs to, and conveys the whimsy that a design studio should. I don't know that a HTML version would be as convincing, and I know that the site has given them great leads over the years.

To be honest, I find that most designers are cool with Flash while many developers are not (although Flex is bringing some around).

That all said, I think Flash is not the problem, the implementers are -- just as HTML isn't the cause of ugly websites. People need to forget the Flash of old and know that soon, RIAs will become more prevalent and useful...

Brett
1/28/2008 11:45:52 PM

Could you point me to internal page/frame in an entire flash site? No, instead you must say "Go here, click on here, follow to here, and then wait for the loading to finish then click on the little red icon at the bottom.. that's how you get to our contact page."

Peter
1/29/2008 12:48:25 AM

I've seen Flash sites that load fast with easy navigation to all their info.

I've seen HTML sites where I can't find their contact page for the life of me.

Most good Flash sites load in under 10 seconds on broadband -- and the increased user experience of good flash sites are worth it.

I've met many people who trash on Flash sites but I've yet to find that any one of them has actually used Flash more than just playing it "once or twice."

Outside of news sites, blogs, and a few other industries where using Flash would be stupid, I would take an excellent Flash site over an excellent HTML site. (It's just that Flash-bashing gets a lot more attention and more visitors, so kudos to you for defending it.)

PiercedLogic
1/29/2008 8:00:40 AM

I second your love letter! As a digital media artist (illustrator, graphic design, multimedia) I have been using flash for years and I haven't had any qualms with it..Sure I have seen bad flash sites, but it's the people making them that don't realize what it's for, not the tool/program itself.

It's like people thinking because they can get their hands on Photoshop that they are digital artists....Tools don't turn you into something, they just facilitate a means to an end. Don't blame the tools, blame the people abusing the tools.

Jakob
1/29/2008 9:09:59 AM

As one who make my entire living using Flash I can only agree. It's not only a great platform for webaps and animation; it's my favorite sketchpad too.

I think the main problem is that people judge it for not doing what it's not supposed to. No, you can't make a multi-platform site witch regress flawlessly in Flash (or can you? ;)) but as far as I know no-one is trying. You can, however, bring rich content to millions of users regardless of what browser / version / OS they are using. I mean, just look at that beautiful version penetration!

Yay Flash!

Rodrigo Mejía
1/30/2008 11:23:16 AM

Yes, I completely agree that there are lots of web developers which are unfair with flash because of ignorance / misconceptions / bad references / etc.
Anyway, I'm not completely shure if I like the Road Runner aproach (I mean, farther than an interesting experiment).
But take a look at this size, at first seems almost equivalent to the road runner... but then it gets pretty fun.
http://producten.hema.nl/

jamEs
1/31/2008 6:49:40 AM

I find Flash is finally coming into its own. Many designers are starting to be able to weave it into their static sites to make them dynamic without being overbearing. I recently saw http://www.meomi.com/ and really liked how they enriched the experience with Flash without it defeating web standard design.

John Dowdell
1/31/2008 10:56:01 AM

Thanks for the happy words, Samuel, others... I'm glad the technology is helping in reaching your goals.

Brett: "Could you point me to internal page/frame in an entire flash site? No." No "No" but "Yes". ;-) The representation of application state in an URL has actually been practiced for years. Here's a 2004 example, and search "urlkit" or "flash deep linking" for current work:
http://www.klynch.com/archives/000076.html

Text seems such a simple media type, and yet.... ;-)

jd/adobe

mitomane
2/1/2008 2:48:48 AM

...but I choose HAXE for Open Source development with FLASH.

[Paul Ferrie]
2/5/2008 7:34:25 AM

Flash you have had me for 8 years.
When will it end?
P.S I love you :)

Jeremy
2/5/2008 12:38:24 PM

"p.s. - When in god's name do you intend on offering a better IDE, with intellisense as extensive as Visual Studio, Zend, etc.? It's been years now, so I almost feel it's YOUR fought that developers wouldn't consider you a real development tool."

- your friend... a Flash developer

Chase
2/6/2008 4:47:55 AM

Flash is definitely a technique that has its fine points and can be used exceptionally well or terribly bad. I would have to agree with some of the previous comments where the best flash sites are ones you're not even sure if it's flash or not. I have definitely seen some full-flash sites that blew me away but I think they are a little more of a niche design.

Mark
2/6/2008 11:21:15 AM

CNN's election info graphics should be case enough that flash is here to stay, and quite useful. I'm sure there are totally backwards ways to do it with other technologies but you'd really be building a sandcastle with a bulldozer, so to speak.

In a site that I'm currently developing I wanted to have a character logo subtly overlapping other elements, and transparent in parts so that I could easily change the background with CSS. I also wanted it to be clickable only on the illustration itself, not the bounding box. While there are numerous solutions, I eventually chose Flash because of how flexible it was while maintaining integrity in all popular browsers. I didn't need any convulted coding or CSS hacks to accomplish my goal, just a plugin that practically everyone that browses the internet these days has straight out of the box.

When I told my brother (who I'm collaborating with on the redesign) that I used Flash to accomplish the task, he asked me why it wasn't animated. Therein lies the major problem.

Phil
2/9/2008 10:23:36 AM

No way!

I HATE flash.
is is uglly and you have to dowload it!
Grrrrrrrr. =:(

SILVERLIGHT PERFECT until now ;)

Dan Cole
2/11/2008 7:43:58 AM

SVG is going to replace Flash and Silverlight in the future. It's a browser side image (XML) format, which creates images with vectors. It also has the ability to create animation and have indexable text (meaning it works well with search engines). Although IE is slow to adapt it, so it's not here yet.

iwiLetter.com
2/12/2008 11:14:42 AM

haha, that's great. You and Flash seem very close! You should submit that for our Love Letter writing contest.

iwiLetter.com (send real letters, write online) is hosting a Love Letter writing contest. Write your best Love Letter and it can become part of our growing selection of sample letters available for anyone to read or send in the mail via iwiLetter.com. Imagine your Love Letter being read and used by thousands of other Lovebirds!

Submit your Love Letters at http://www.iwiLetter.com/LoveLetter

Andrei Potorac
2/17/2008 2:05:17 PM

Hahahah, good read! :)

Gil
4/15/2008 1:36:48 AM

Dear Samuel,

I have so much gratitude for Flash because it put bread on my table for many years. And as you say it so well, gratitude because it let creativity remain in my life...

I remember the days when those nasty poeple were making fun of the young Flash 5, mocking him, saying that it was 99 % bad, poeple are so cruel.

But they were not so self assured when Flash grew up, became stronger, more capable, and more clever !

Yes, by those days, I was telling them how nice it was to have a friend like Flash, how nice it was to travel the world with him and meet all those beautifull women ! I would have never done that with css, html ...

Yes, those years of fight and hopes were wonderfull...now is time a maturity and responsabilities...

Philip Seyfi
6/14/2008 8:18:41 AM

My words :)

small business seo
6/22/2008 2:38:10 PM

haha :)

have you seen this? Google is 2-timing flash with her HTML sister. looks like she's all yours ;)

http://www.ineedhits.com/free-tools/blog/2008/06/google-lets-us-skip-site-flash-intro.aspx

Website design london
7/4/2008 5:27:32 AM

Thats very nice i read many time..

ibiza villas 2000
7/10/2008 2:55:45 PM

We are considering redoing our site in flash www.ibizavillas2000.com, it seems to make the experience much smoother and once it is loaded responds very quickly unlike so many other sites these days.

I would be interested to hear of any disadvantages? Surely if you code the application correctly navigation is obvious, no large time delays or impressive fireworks shows need to go on when the next click is an important one?

lijfrente verzekering
7/17/2008 3:14:10 AM

Hi Samuel, I like the humor in your love letter to Flash.
Some time ago, I heard that search engines have difficulties with websites that use Flash. Is that also true for Silverlight?
In my work as a volunteer for an open and free internet knowledge database in the Netherlands, (called Leerwiki.nl) I would like to start using Flash, to make the website more attractive.

The new kid on the block MS Silverlight presents itself as: a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

I hope that Flash is ready for the competition! Regards Ann Mary

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