Just in case there hasn’t been enough talk about the iPad and Flash these past few days, I’ll offer my thoughts, free of charge. Apart from my own personal preferences in technologies, my job remains the same: design beautiful, accessible, usable websites. While I still have to create workarounds for the ever-lingering IE6, most everything else is built around web standards. This insures that the sites I build will look and behave appropriately across different browsers, operating systems, and devices.
A few years ago, I would have opted to build everything in Flash because it averted the cross-browser issues. At that time, Flash was growing rapidly in market penetration, and it displayed content consistently in different browsers. Browser issues solved.
Enter the iPhone. What, no Flash support? Initially, I was quite bummed. However, as time has gone on, and as I’ve come to accept that Apple has no intention of supporting plugin technology on it’s touch devices, whether that’s Flash, Java, or (Microsoft, you should be so honored for me to mention) Silverlight. Jeffrey Zeldman emphasizes this in his contribution to the conversation:
Flash won’t die tomorrow, but plug-in technology is on its way out.
I don’t know how successful the iPad will actually be, but it’s worth noting the hype. And the hype is big enough to create this huge stir regarding Flash support. There has never been a huge amount of mobile devices actually supported Flash in the first place, and the iPhone simply magnified that fact. But the iPad is now a Flash-less device that is magnifying the fact that people are browsing the web away from their desk on all sorts of devices. With the rise of these new devices, Flash’s market penetration is actually declining.
Kevin Yank sums it up nicely for web designers and developers in his piece iPad vs Flash: Developers, Choose Wisely:
The trend is clear: users want to access the Web on a greater variety of devices, and the only factor these devices have in common is support for open web standards. As developers, we no longer have the luxury of relying on plugin technologies like Flash, Java, and Silverlight if we wish to maximize the reach of the web experiences that we build…
Noting these trends, all I can stick do is the standards that most modern browsers hold to. Methinks I’ll be working less and less in Flash.
So, what you’re saying is that, eventually, I will become (or have been) brilliant for never learning Flash?
Wow, the future could be really, really cool!! :)
Wow! I really wouldn’t expect this kind of response from someone who has done some amazing Flash experiences and knows the difference between the technologies. I get the whole debate and I’m fine with Apple not including Flash (and as a side note I expect Showit to do more and more to improve both the HTML and Flash experiences), but the reality is that there are things that just can’t be done in pure HTML/CSS that can be done in Flash and will continue to be that way for a long time with only Silverlight in competition on that front. If you have a client who comes to you wanting a complex animation or interactive 3D model or widget that makes use of the web cam, do you turn them away because you only do “web standards”? I do agree there is going to be a need to be accessible on the low end of browser technology but people want and expect interactive web content so why limit yourself to the low end if you have the ability to create more valuable high end expressive content?
I’ll probably get an iPad even without Flash because it will be cool, but the moment the Jailbreak comes out that lets me install a Firefox browser with plugins, I’m going to be all over it, because there are tons of sites on the web that are so much better with plugin technology. You highlight “open web standards” which is ironic considering the topic is around a very closed device, I don’t know how others continue to champion this when the greatest leaps and bounds in technology are from proprietary systems (like Apple’s iPad). Even now HTML5 video is in a tailspin with no browsers coming to an agreement on supported video formats. At least with a plugin, one company makes a call and it moves forward.
Anyway, the conclusion is interesting because it sounds like “because there are more devices in the world connected to the web, I’m going to have to dumb down the experience to the lowest common denominator”. I argue, rise up to what your clients’ need, if it’s a vanilla site that works on every device, you’re stuck in the HTML dark ages (IE6 and all!). If however they need a mind blowing site with interactive content that engages a user on ninety something percent of desktop computers but also provides a plain vanilla interface to mobile users (which I think your talent provides the tools to do really well), then you may be seeing Flash in your future…
Well, I hope this didn’t turn into a rant, I’ve read way too many of those lately on this whole iPad thing, just was flipping through the blogs and surprised me, figured I might as well counter with the challenge :) I hope all is well and hopefully we’ll see you soon!
Todd
Todd, I absolutely agree that Flash is capable of things that html/css/javascript is not. In those cases, I do use Flash to progressively enhance the experience for users that support the plugin. I would, however, disagree that Flash is the only way to create engaging, interactive experiences on the web. Javascript libraries like jQuery have allowed me to create interactivity available on all devices that would not be considered “dumbed down”, even though it may not support the extensive effects that Flash does.
With this in mind, I can take 2 approaches to designing a site: 1) Design it in Flash, taking full advantage of all the bells & whistles imaginable, and create an HTML-only version of the site that displays the content in a dumbed-down way -or- 2) Design an engaging site with open web standards available on all devices, utilizing Flash if necessary.
Based on my clientele, the latter is my best option. This proved true and effective on a recent project when, right before we launched the site, my contact at the company said, “My boss is out of town right now. If I send him a link to the site, will he be able to see it on his Blackberry?” Thankfully, I could confidently say, “yes, the site and all the features will display just fine on all devices”. In this case, it was essential to please someone who was in that minority of people without Flash.
This post was not meant to be a Flash-bashing session, but an analysis of the trends and how that effects me as a web designer. In a perfect world, there would be one browser and one way of making everything work exactly as I intend it. Unfortunately, we both know that’s not the case, and never will be :)
Yeah, I can see where you are going with this, but I don’t agree this is going to be the continuing trend. I think one of the issues being overlooked right now is the huge innovation in the mobile plugin space that is about to take place. What’s happened over the last few years is that mobile web browsing has taken off in the US and plugins were not originally built or ready for these mobile devices. Because HTML was able to work on this reduced performance machine, it’s what we’ve seen the web development movement trend toward so that it can handle the mobile market. However, Adobe has rebuilt the Flash plugin from the ground up to perform and actually work on a mobile device and they worked with every manufacturer in the Open Screen Project (this includes every mobile manufacturer except the closed Apple) and at MAX last year they did a demo of the upcoming Flash 10.1 on a bunch of these new devices and it actually looked and performed well on every one of them. So what we have seen is a backlash to Flash before they have even released what they consider will be their true mobile cross platform experience. I think when that is out in the next few months and all the Android devices support Flash 10.1, the trend could head back toward plugin usage because of all the technological benefits a plugin is going to gain over the slow moving open web standards community. Once this comes to pass, that boss on the Blackberry is going to get the same Flash content on his mobile device. The question will then be whether Apple continues to hold out when consumers are asking, why do all my friends with Android phones have no problem with Flash content and my tablet with the “best web experience” just has blue legos :)
sigh… i’m going to miss those awesome futuristic sound effects when i clicked on the tabs in those snazzy navigation bars (not that you did any of those, nate).