To me, this is like when Apple released the iMac sans floppy drive. Had they not done that, floppies would have probably been around for another three years. They’re willing to take their lumps to try to drive the whole industry forward (and yes, I’m in the web-standards-are-a-good-thing camp, in case you couldn’t tell). Of course, they have their own agenda for doing so, but in the end it’ll be a good thing. Microsoft’s recent announcement that IE9 will support HTML5 video is a good indication that things are moving in that direction. It doesn’t hurt that Google is working hard to advance HTML5 themselves. Flash 10.1 on mobile devices might be a bit late if a couple more majors (cough, Hulu, cough) move away from the platform and developers are looking at over 100 million users who can’t view Flash content.

I commend you for being flexible enough to even consider moving away from a platform I know you’ve spent great deal of time becoming very proficient in. I still bitch about all the time I put into learning QuarkXpress. What a rip.

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 :)

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

Wow, the future could be really, really cool!! :)