Boycotting Flash

I’ve had it.  I’m done with Flash and Silverlight and any other bogus “Rich Internet Application” technology used to deliver what should be normal websites on the WWW.  Now, internal websites/applications are something entirely different.

But relying on Flash to deliver information guarantees an absolutely abysmal user experience.  Designers, I know you’re a clever artsy bunch, but most of the time these types of sites leave users guessing on what to do and where to click.  Websites aren’t meant to be a guessing game.  But in Flash sites, I’m relegated to wave the mouse around to see what I’m supposed to click.  It’s a fun game, maybe there are some Easter eggs hidden in there.  Is that little box the Menu page?  Oh yes, because the box unfolded and a flower popped out.

I remember the days when Flash sites had a “low bandwidth” option.  For me it was the “you just want to get to the information and not see a dancing clown” option.  I can’t copy text.  I can’t bookmark pages.  Back/forward doesn’t work.  I enter a new land, where the last 10 years of using the HTML paradigm do not work, and it’s now up to the whim of the designer to invent a new paradigm, hopefully incorporating some lame Smash Mouth song.

Please, designers, leave Flash to where it belongs – ads, games and streamed content.  If you’re a restaurant, I don’t care about entering your site through a Flash facade of your physical location.  I don’t want to click a door to enter.  I just want to see the menu.  I just want to place a to-go order.  I just want to find your closest location.  Not solve some Myst-type labyrinth of insanity.  My favorite Firefox plugin – Flashblock – lets me boycott Flash.  I’ll decide when I want that garbage to show up, thank you very much.