Re: FLASH: Flash in Business

[Wayne Townsend]

Hi DF, thx for writing,


>The home page brings up something I've been mulling over for a long time.

>To whit:

>What's the best way to deal with the Flash / No Flash problem? I'm sure

>there's no

>single best solution that works all the time, but the element that I find

>missing

>in so many home pages such as your own is this: a naive viewer who only

>knows or

>even thinks that they can't use the Flash material, isn't given a clue

>that it's

>worth the time it may take to download the plugin. They'll just go to the HTML

>stuff, probably won't get as jazzed about the company as they would have

>with the

>Flash stuff, and are more likely to leave the site without a "Great!"

>impression.


Well, of course this is *the* issue, that we've been battling with for years.

The answer is for Netscape, IE & MM to get together and come up with a

native routine that works all the time for their legacy code.  It is their

responsibility to do so.  And they're fools not to.  It ain't my job as the

designer, it's theirs.  They need to take their top guys & gals, lock 'em

in a room together, and not let them out until they have an answer that is

bullit-proof.


>I'm a Flash Radical, and my personal attitude (not necessarily my professional

>attitude) is to *force* 'em to get the plugin and be done with it


Yes!  I'm with you.  Build it and they will come.  And that's the point of

my post.

As more important companies adopt it, the audience will adopt it.

Now, here's a publicly traded company that had the guts to do it.  I want

my fellow designers to use this as a tool when dealing with skiddish

clients.  There's before/after there.


C'mon, it's not like we're asking the audience to go out and buy a new $3k

Hi-def TV.  But that industry doesn't seem to have any problem with

evolution, now does it.  They know what they're doing.


You've got to give MM credit tho.  They've made all the right moves in

getting this thing out as standard, and done a fine job of it.  Not an easy

task, to say the least.  They've succeeded where most others have failed.

It's on every new PC/Mac computer sold if I'm not mistaken.  That makes it

standard enough for me.  For the old stogies, if they want to see the cool

stuff, they can turn their hands.  Don't worry, they will.  It's not like

we're taking $5 out of their pocket.


It's a percieved value thing.  We designers hold the key here.  There's no

question that the Flash group produces the best stuff on the net.  We just

need to stand our ground and say, no, I'll never produce another boring

html site again.  Life's too short.  This is what the audience wants, and

I'm going to give it to them.  The newbies will get a clue soon enough.

Since I took that position btw, I've had all the work that I can handle,

and at top $ rates.


>To me this is a key, critical consideration -- it's the old "you gotta

>grab 'em in

>the first 15 seconds, or you've lost 'em" routine.


Absolutely true. This is a TV audience that we're dealing with now. That's

why our loading routines should be a project/movie in itself.


Notice how in those movies, I get the menu button up as fast as possible

for the return visitors, while the intro plays independently.


>Certainly someday, ideally,

>bandwidth will be huge, and Flash will be a standard,


See above.  Flash is already a standard.


>and it'll all be *transparent*, but, for now, this obstacle *must* be a

>designer's first big

>consideration, and the choices made *can and do* make a huge difference in the

>success or failure of the site to create the outcome it's seeking: increased

>positive flow of revenue in.


So, you have both versions on line for now and let the audience decide.

What else can you do?  Have trust in them.  They're greedy and want the

best stuff. They'll get the idea that they need to do this to get that, and

do so.  It's always worked throughout history.


>I guess it's like the ever-changing question of whether to design an HTML

>page for

>13-inch monitors, or 15-inch, or even 17-inch or larger ... and I see this

>"convention" changing over time as I continue to explore the Web.


Neat how flash scales, so the old monitor problem goes away. :)


>I would very much like to hear others' opinions on this topic -- I'm sure

>we all

>have one (or more), and I don't see it discussed much, as a philosophical

>issue.


Yeah, but I can't think of many issues that are more important.  So, chime

in everybody.  I have my MagLight and Fire Extinguisher at the ready.


Lead, follow, or get out of the way.


Thx for the mail dragonfly, ATB,


/w


Wayne Townsend

WebStaffing.Net

Farmersville/Princeton, Texas

waynettopher [dot] net

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