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Viability of Flash for Modern Web UIs
Comments(5)
The last post on the new Yahoo Maps Beta drew some good comments, primarily objecting to the use of Flash as the base technology.
My reaction: Wow, tough crowd! The main point of the post was: pertty. Isn’t the pirate interface visually beautiful? I think (hope?) that as long as the app works out of the box with good performance, the average user who isn’t a hackneyed techie like us will care most about usability and visual appeal as opposed to the underlying technology. If the technical choices enable usability and aesthetic appeal and don’t hinder hackability, I think we’re in good shape.
I have two kids under the age of 4 who like to play computer. Turns out most of the Web hosted kids’ games are flash based. They really work quite well and have opened my eyes to the capabilities that exist in almost all of our browsers – apparently flash is available in over 96% of the browsers worldwide. You can do a lot with this thing.
On the other hand, I have to agree with Daniel’s sentiment that “Flash is so… nineties”. Somehow despite its capabilities it doesn’t get any respect, at least not from the core technology alpha dogs. It feels old school, not something you’d consider seriously if you’re one of the cool kids. Why is this?
Last time I directly touched Flash was back in the flash 5 days in a disastrous attempt at a disastrous project. The issue was not necessarily flash, but my rather obvious lack of ability and taste in visual design. However, a few things did surface – Flash is not aimed at the programmer. Its core audience is the visual designer, who can and does do amazing things with it. As a programmer, I was supremely frustrated at the lack of real server side support and a very hokey programming language.
I understand both of these have been addressed to some degree in subsequent versions. However, the barrier is still too high for the average geek. For one thing the authoring environment costs money. For another, it’s primarily visual as opposed to programming based.
I was excited about SVG as it has neither of these issues. But it turns out issues still exist – no technology is going to cure lack of taste and aesthetic design ability when you’re dealing with lines and shapes instead of pre-built components. Also, it’s difficult and unnatural to design a very graphical interface by writing lines of instructions and text. You want a graphical authoring environment. But wait, I didn’t like that either…
AJAX is no cure – it’s possible but unnecessarily painful to create nice interfaces. XUL hasn’t made a dent. So where do we go from here? Is Microsoft going to solve our problem with XAML?
Since I started the ranting, I feel it’s only fair to start the Flash-love.
I think that Flash definitely has a place on the Web. It is capable of amazing things, specifically because it’s not restrained by the lowest-common-denominator environment that most Web technologies have to deal with. For instance, the Homestar Runner site (http://homestarrunner.com) is hilarious, full-featured, and beautifully done, and it’s implemented entirely in Flash.
However, there’s one very important difference between a site like H*R and a map: I can treat the vagaries of the H*R interface as part of the entertaining experience, but when dealing with a tool I *don’t want any vagaries at all*. A map isn’t something I’m going to fiddle with for half an hour, it’s the thing I’m going to check for 15 seconds when looking for the best route to the meeting that starts in 5 minutes.
Just to be clear, I’m not just picking on Flash here. Anything that requires a user to shift away from the known behavior of the browser–a Java applet (where have all those gone?), an SVN interface (which currently requires a plug-in), or even an overly-intricate AJAX implementation–should be avoided in cases where simple, easy-to-access information is more important than style or presentation.
Hopefully that was even-handed enough to not hurt anyone’s feelings.
Flash, when used well, is fantastic – yet Flash, when used badly, is terrible. I think people should actually think beyond the tool being used and rather consider the final end product.
As a teacher I’ve found Flash incredibly useful in making engaging content – materials that get students interested and then push them further. Here, I’m hoping, I’m making effective use of Flash. I’m certainly no artist.
To say that ‘Flash’ itself is bad or past it isn’t really reasonable. It is an incredible design and programming tool. The comments about the lack of server side support and ‘a very hokey programming language’ are not made by someone who has experience of the more recent versions.
To be honest, I think the problem with Flash is also the beauty of it. As it is so open, enabling anyone to produce their own designs, their own solutions it is like a blank piece of paper. You could come along and create something amazing. You can equally come along and make a mess.
So – all I’d suggest is focusing on the end product – if Flash is used well the results can be phenomenal. Flash player is a must-have installation for anyone using the internet.
If you want the familiar web paradigm of of XML layout, CSS styling, and ECMA compliant programming languages, check out Flex 2:
http://labs.macromedia.com
I’ve foregone my 5 year career in Flash and become a full-time Flex programmer; use 1.5 during the day, and 2 at night… that is until Spring of 2006.
Granted, I still use Flash to do programtic components that require GUI skills than Flex can handle, and the occasional weekend contract coding job, but Flex will definately give you that XUL like feel, with components that own, and you can connect it to any webservice or back-end of your liking.
SVG might have a future, but we need it to work by default in major browsers. Firefox 1.5 will support some SVG, but not all, and, to be precise, it won’t support animations (!!!).
AJAX is plagued by the “JavaScript in the browser is not portable” curse. So would SVG solutions relying on JavaScript.
As for Flash, I think you guys give it too much credit. It has major usability issues. You can’t bookmark, it disables the right click and so on. It generally breaks the web browsing experience. Yes, it works for games. It works for cool demos and online entertainment.
A map is not about entertainment. A map ought to be usable before it becomes entertaining.
This being said, AJAX has many of the same issues Flash has (including bookmarking), but it doesn’t break the web experience as much.
Daniel, I agree that inability to bookmark and a non-functioning back button break the user experience completely. However, flash seems to be making some headway in that. The Yahoo Maps Beta, for example, has both a working back button and is bookmarkable, preserving your state (eg. address) in the bookmark. I remember Macromedia recognizing these issues and thinking about ways to solve them, which they apparently have in this app.
I had heard about Flex and it was another one of the things I wanted to check out but never got a chance to. Macromedia needs to come up with some sort of free authoring strategy; I’m always hesistant to spend mindshare on something that’ll cost me money to author, even if the amount of money is small. That’s not necessarily a logical thing given the relative cost of the tool versus the value of my time, but I think it stands in the way of most people.