Flash sites cannot be read on the iPhone or iPad as Flash is blocked by Apple. Many agencies are guilty of over-Flashing their own websites (and their clients). Have a look at these abominations and tell me: To Flash or Not to Flash, That Is The Question?
I hate flash. It’s fine for little cute games but a whole website? Blech. Given the war between Apple/Microsoft vs makers of Flash, Adobe, I thought I would have a quick poke around for the worst Flash websites in the whole wide world. Agencies with teams of Flash developers tend to win the #Fail Award, but there are other non Agency sites (designed by those agencies of course) that also win most Flash-riddled sites. Others of course have done research before me:
Flash splash pages and intros have been known to cut traffic by 50%. Auto-on sound which often accompanies these Flash animations makes them even more dangerous. Below are some intros that are questionable. Do they work for or against the site? I’m not 100% sure. (10e20.com)
Here’s a selection:
If your site needs a tutorial
Bad Flash - if your website needs navigation tutorials...
If you are selling phone products
A site for 5 year olds - everything jiggles!
Amazing site. Artistic even. I really must check it out on my iPhone (which doesn’t play Flash). Oh dear.
The website as a moving ad
Bad Flash: you aren not here for information but for entertainment
Actually I was wrong – if you wait long enough you get past the pastry to the meaty website. Most people would be long gone…
Of course you don’t have to have Flash to be nasteh.
Truly awful becomes art in it's own right.
Any old website tools will do for those with no taste.
Agencies LIKE Flash
So I looked at the Top Australian Agencies to see if they had flash sites. I used the list on Campaign Brief for best ad agencies which they in turn get from BestAds. Argue with them, not me if you don’t like the list. And yes. Yes they do have a lot of Flash -
- Whybin TBW Blog not Flash
- 2 Grey Group, Flash
- 3 BMF Australia, Flash
- 4 Droga5, Flash
- 4 Saatchi Australia, Flash
- 6 Clemenger BBDO, Flash
- 6 Jay Grey, Flash
- 6 Leo Burnett (under construction)
- 9 Colman Rasic, Flash
- 9 JWT Australia, Flash
- 9 Marketforce Perth, Flash
- 9 US Agency (part of Razor) Flash
Interestingly, number one on the list, Whybin/TBW, is the only one that don’t have a flash site – it’s a blog. Far be it for me to smugly point out that is why they are number one… Leo Burnett are making a few changes to their website – more Flash? Less?
I knew the minute I hit enter on their URLs whether they had a flash site or not. If the screen went white and hung there (from between a few seconds to over a minute) it was Flash. By the way, some like Colman Rasic have simple mobile versions, others like BMF do not.
Bad Flash: It looks identical on the iPhone.
Bad Flash: Saatchi site loading
So, what do we think of Flash – makes the internetz a prettier place? Slow to load? iPhone/iPad unfriendly or mobile versions ok? Spawn of the Devil?
Will HTML5 be much better? Do you read any agency websites on RSS? Are Agency websites just for a portfolio and contact page?
As for me, I’m making a donation to Apple’s Block Flash Sites legal fund. $2 at least.
I'm running small, one-day computer based