Flash in the pan

It took me a whole misspent summer, back in sunny Manchester, to learn Flash.

I was between my second and third year of uni when I decided to sit down and work my way through the Flash 4 Bible (we don’t have the sun or beaches in Manchester). It seemed like the right thing to do after dipping my toe in web design with HTML during my second year.

Once I had mastered the basics of the program I later in life decided to read a book as thick as my arm about Actionscript for Flash on the bus into work. Pretty geeky I know, but similar to Keanu Reeves in the Matrix, I was able to say “I know Flash.”

It was a big investment of my time, but as a young designer I thought that the web was where it was all happening, and I had to learn it. There’s no doubt about it – Flash has had a huge influence on the web. Rich media, animation, web applications and video. But are we about to see the end of Flash?

Apple has the power to make it all go away. Why? Because they’re having a little bit of a feud with Adobe (and Google by the way but let’s not get into that).

Steve Jobs’ problem with Flash is that it hogs the processor and battery life of mobile devices, and this includes the iPhone and the iPad – not good for the end user. The Apple stance is that HTML5 is the way forward and Flash should die. Hence, there has never been support for Flash on the iPhone and likely never will be.

Personally, I’m over Flash. How often do we groan when we see a Flash intro, a percentage loading bar, or a message telling us we need to upgrade?

How often do we visit a photographer’s Flash website, and wish we hadn’t? And how many times have we just given up when form has taken favour over function? I think that Flash has actually lost its relevance and is quite old fashioned.

But don’t get me wrong. I am equally seduced by beautiful animation, and web design that offers a cinematic experience – rich in visuals and music. It can be quite beautiful. I just don’t have the patience for it.

The web is instant nowadays. Web searches take fractions of a second, information is up to the minute, and people want access to information now, not in five minutes.

Microsoft seems to think that another Flash is needed. They call it Silverlight. I find this one baffling. With no user base or developers learning it, why would anyone spec Silverlight as the technology for a new site; except Microsoft of course?

In Apple’s latest plight to dismiss Flash, they’ve just introduced iAd – a rich media approach to advertising on the iPhone and iPad, running purely in HTML5. It’s essentially an app within an app and allows advertisers to engage audiences on an emotional and entertainment level – something that an animated GIF or Flash banner struggles to do.

Advertising on the web, and more-so on mobile devices, has become plentiful making it often invisible to us. 

And what about those ads which take over the website you’re looking at? The first impression that brand makes, is to annoy me. They rely on the close button being so small that you miss it and end up following the link – so deceit is their next tactic.

And what is happening with YouTube now? Where have all these ads on the content come from? You can’t even close those ones. I like the idea of anything that makes advertising on the web and mobile devices a better experience.

HTML5, PHP, CSS and AJAX. A whole host of techie acronyms which could all potentially knock Flash off its pedestal for the next generation of web experiences. Only time will tell what happens, but in the meantime, maybe it’s time to start reading the text books again.