Adobe and Flash overuse

[arogge]

Why are so many Websites replacing HTML and JavaScript functions with Adobe (Macromedia) Flash animations? They run very slowly on my PPC-based Mac, and now I can't even run Flash software anymore for various other reasons. This has meant that I'm now locked out of many Websites.

Why can't Webpage design be simple anymore? You don't need Flash to display plain text! I'm not going to sit around waiting for several minutes while the Webpages that used to take 10 seconds to load now take 2 minutes or more, while watching this animated progress bar bouncing around the screen... "Loading 5%... 10%... Please Wait." Just show me the stupid content already! No MIDI music, no bouncy balls, and no OS X rip-off animations; just text and photos and maybe a PDF file that I can download and print.

People who want to have text enlarged can't use their browsers anymore with this Flash problem, but instead must find the little buttons in the Flash animations to change the text size, if they are even available. Flash animations also don't enlarge when the browser window is expanded. When your monitor is set to 1600x1024 or higher resolution, this means that the objects in the Flash animation can be very small. Try viewing Flash animations on a PDA with a very small screen, and it can become very frustrating.

Forcing users to view Flash animations also means no text-to-speech, no search and copy-and-paste, and no easy scrolling of text. I've seen Flash scroll bars that were less than 10 pixels wide, and I had to really concentrate on getting the mouse over the stupid scroll button. If you clicked anywhere else on the Flash scrollbar, it would ignore you. Keyboard inputs were also ignored. Then it started overlapping with the Flash animations behind that window, and was totally disabled. It would've been much simpler to write in HTML and let the browser do its job.

Now when I hit Flash-only Websites, I'm shown an error message about how I'm attempting to install Flash on an unsupported platform. No, I'm not attempting to install anything. Flash, be gone!

 

[angelwatt]

Yea, there is certainly no lack of poorly designed sites that try to make up for it with flashy web sites using Flash and other animations that add no value to the site. I've come across many sites that break down when you have JavaScript disabled. If it's a site I care about I contact them and let them know my disappointment. 99% of the time they reply in a way that reflects their ignorance on the topic and they lose my business for good.

I have certain things on my web site that require JavaScript, but mostly because it wouldn't make sense to have it any other way and some of it is simply for me to practice. I always make sure the content is available no matter what is disabled though. Unfortunately, I'm in the minority.

 

[design-is]

I agree completely. I see very little good use of flash on the web. Sorry for the fairly lazy reply, but I'm going to quote what I posted in another thread:

<snip>
A lot of flash websites are badly designed and unnecessary in my opinion. I feel a properly built web page using relevant scripts and css could often produce results far superior in terms of usability, aesthetics and also SEO.

I'm not saying flash is evil, just how some people use it. Flash is an excellent technology and when used correctly and appropriately can be invaluable in delivering that finishing touch or interactive experience that is sometimes required.

Again, all my opinion. You're all welcome to disagree. </snip>

/Doug

 

[UTclassof89]

Wow; another Flash-bashing thread (I haven't seen one of those in about a day).

 

[lucidmedia]

Why can't Webpage design be simple anymore? You don't need Flash to display plain text! I'm not going to sit around waiting for several minutes while the Webpages that used to take 10 seconds to load now take 2 minutes or more, while watching this animated progress bar bouncing around the screen... "Loading 5%... 10%... Please Wait." Just show me the stupid content already! No MIDI music, no bouncy balls, and no OS X rip-off animations; just text and photos and maybe a PDF file that I can download and print.

I understand your issues with flash, but seems you are longing for the internet of 1998! Well-made websites today often have to function more like applications. Audiences are not interested in static websites anymore, which is why most websites need some sort of a back-end and why AJAX, Flash and Flex have become so popular.

AJAX, Flash and Flex each have their usability issues. Ajax (IMO) is a lot more expensive when it comes to development, which is why we are seeing so many more flash sites.

Crappy websites are everywhere, in HTML and Flash and AJAX. It seems you are running into quite a bit of badly made flash sites... that does not mean there isn't some really interesting development work happening...

I agree that Adobe's flash player team has not shown a great deal of support lately for PPC macs (I suppose I understand their position. Apple made the Intel switch in 2006). I will be meeting with the Flash team in San Jose this summer and am interested in their future roadmap for macintosh support. (which has never been great anyhow...)

 

[dmmcintyre3]

Flash (even ads) + PB G4 (1.67 GHz second to last model) = 100% CPU + 70ºC CPU temperature


I hate flash and it is overused. Why does an ad need to be flash? Why do you need these intro videos that most people click skip on? I am glad MR doesn't use flash (except for ads which is easily block-able)

Youtube could use quicktime or similar so what is flash for? Wasting power and killing battery life?

PS:
If MacRumors used text ads I would disable ad blockers on here.

 

[angelneo]

Admittedly, Flash is bloated, it doesn't help that a lot of programmers for flash themselves seldom trim their fats. Since the last revision, I think Flash has improved a lot, focusing on making their player run the same code faster.

Evolutionary-wise, I think Flash is a good direction to go, we can't be forever stuck with just html and images. Javascript seems possible, but the rendering is dependent on the browser, which I think is prone to issues.

 

[arogge]

I understand your issues with flash, but seems you are longing for the internet of 1998!

Yes, maybe I'd like the speed and simplicity of 1998 with the bandwidth of today, which would leave lots of room for QuickTime video and iTunes downloads. That's around when layers were being developed, something else that could be frustrating.

When I am looking for product information or am trying to buy something, delays caused by unnecessary use of Flash are unacceptable, especially when they crash my browser. I don't want interaction. I just want the information or a completed transaction, immediately, so that I can get off and do something else.

I've stopped my attempts to buy some products because I was unable to wade through the mess of Flash animations to find what I wanted. A simple HTML list of all of the products, and a simple Find command issued in the browser, would have located the product that I wanted. Instead, the contracted Web developers decided to encode the information into Flash animations, and force the user to view only one product at a time, with a 5-second delay in between each attempt to view a product through another animation. No, I don't want to watch fading windows and flying text. I want the specs, the price, and a way to buy it, immediately! These Webpage developers don't seem to get it. Fortunately, not all developers are like this.

 

[Nordichund]

Studies show that today most people browsing a site, just want to get the information they are looking for as fast and easily as possible.

Sure if it's a gaming site or trying to attract teenage boys, flash might be impressive. But most people can't be bothered to sit through a boring flash show, no matter how much work has been put into it, or even be bothered to wait for the flash to load.

So I disagree that flash is the thing. I think a lot of professional sites and designers are moving away to more simpler designs to attract visitors, certainly for the home page. So I'm with Jakob Neilsen, though his site is a bit too plain for me http://www.useit.com/ But like many others, I do read it.