FLASH Websites… Riding the FAIL WHALE!
Today during a Tweeting session, I made a comment in regards to a tweet posted by Don Giannatti @wizwow who was sharing a website development project he just completed for photographer David Ressor www.ressorphotography.com. Don much like myself is not only a photographer but comes from an ad agency background where he has worn many hats over the years, among them are those of a graphic and web designer.
Beyond our similar career paths, both Don and myself share another passion and that is our distaste for photographers using FLASH as the medium for delivering their websites. We also both think that using a CMS or Content Management system is a much better delivery system for a variety of reasons which I’ll outline in a follow up post to this one.
The website that Don built for David is an excellent example of using a Content Management System to run your site and a system like PhotoShelter to manage your online sales.
In my response, I had made a snipe about photographers using FLASH based websites and not to my surprise I received instant feedback from Twitter followers asking why I dislike FLASH so much.
Most of you who have followed the PhotographersHandbook in the past or have heard me speak online or elsewhere are painfully aware of my stance on All FLASH websites and since it’s been a while since I’ve gone on a tirade about the subject or even posted on the PhotographersHandbook.com for that matter, I felt like this was a good opportunity to do so.
Maybe, just maybe I can keep one photographer from making the dreaded mistake of developing an ALL FLASH website or change your thinking in regards to All Flash websites than I can sleep a little better tonight. Insert dramatic music here.
Below are my opinions regarding ALL FLASH websites and my opinions only, if your the owner of a FLASH based website, I understand that you paid a lot of money for it and need to feel good about your purchase. Unless you can point out specifics for why my issues are not valid then please spare me the hate mail.
Before you begin the process of developing a website you need to ask yourself the following 5 questions:
1. WHO IS MY INTENDED AUDIENCE?
Chances are most of you who are reading this blog post are probably amateur to advanced photographers either doing portrait or wedding photography and your typical end user is probably someone that may or may not be particularly internet savvy or be living on the bleeding edge of technology for that matter.
By creating a FLASH website you have already created THE number 1 Cardinal Sin, something I call “The Barrier to Entry” simply put you’ve created your site using a technology that requires your end user to have a special plug-in to view your site. Strike 1.
Yeh Yeh I know that Flash has 98% market penetration or at least that is what Adobe would like you to believe, but just be aware not everyone has the most up to date version of the flash plug-in or wants to take the time to download it just so they can view your masterpiece in all its glory. Also remember, they just might have been the client willing to pay you 10 Grand to shoot their only daughters wedding. Just Sayin’.
2. WHO AM I REALLY ENTERTAINING?
The only people that are entertained by all the animated wizardry on your website are yourself and the people you force to look at your site, sorry but sometimes the truth hurts. If someone out there can tell me specifically that they booked a photography job because the client was so impressed by the music on their site or their dancing logo, more power to you…keep on doing what your doing.
Simple fact is that not everyone is going to like your choice in music and when you have stuff bouncing around all over the screen it detracts the viewer from doing what they set out to do in the first place, which is view your photography and figure out if you’re the one they should spend their hard earned cash hiring. There are 10 million other sites far more entertaining that yours on the Internet… Trust me!
3. IS MY SITE EASY TO UPDATE
Ok, This is where it starts to get really funny.
Unless your using one of the slick services by companies such as BigFolio, BluDomain or a host of other service providers, updating your website is going to be a flat out PAIN IN THE ASS. Either you are going to get stuck buying FLASH and begin the daunting task of learning the software or your going to continually end up paying your designer to update your site. (I think this is the biggest reason designer’s like Flash sites, it gives them a recurring revenue stream).
The beauty of a website is that it is dynamic work of art constantly evolving and changing over time as you see fit, unlike it’s counterpart the printed brochure. This not only allows you to keep your site fresh, but also does wonders for SEO. If your site has been built using FLASH you’ve just done yourself a giant disservice and are going to go crazy trying to make even the simplest of changes.
4. IS MY SITE USER FRIENDLY
What I hate even more than Flash Sites themselves are Flash Sites with Mystery Navigation. If you have to explain how to use your website, then you’ve just won the FAIL 2.0 Award.
Again people want to see your photography, not follow the spinning balls to un-earth what’s behind door number 2. People, if you are going to use Flash make it easy on your viewers, give them straightforward navigation and ways to access your information.
Also remember not everybody can take advantage of your spiffy Flash website, there are folks out there with physical disabilities who rely on special browser plug-in’s to help them with their online viewing.
And Last, have you ever tried to bookmark a page on a flash based website? Yeh, good luck with that.
5. CAN PEOPLE EASILY FIND MY SITE?
While great strides have been made in optimizing FLASH for search engines, Flash flat out SUCKS when it comes to SEO. I don’t care what any web developer tells you, remember most are only going to tell you what you want to hear because all they see are dollar signs in their eyes when they know they’ve got you on the hook for a Flash site.
Flash doesn’t even come close to touching a CMS System like WordPress or Joomla when it comes to SEO. So if having people actually find your website is important to you please consider this very carefully.
With all this said. FLASH does have its place. Flash shines when it comes to developing web based applications or for using sparingly for an online photo gallery, heck I’ll even go as far as saying creating your navigation system using flash is OK. Just do yourself a favor and don’t build the whole damn thing with it.
Honestly I’m really not this bitter in real life, those who know me will attest to my easy going nature :-), the tone of this post was mainly for dramatic effect in hopes someone will find my words useful and besides you guys just asked for my opinion, I’ve been happy to oblige.
For what it’s worth.
Cris…
To continue this discussion follow me on Twitter at www.twiiter.com/crismitchell
or post in the comments below.
Don Giannatti:
You are so right, Cris. I am always going crazy when I try to explain all that is wrong with Flash as a platform for the site. Hey, I don’t mind flash portfolio sections. SlideShowPro is one of my favorites… but it is only for the images. The rest of the site MUST be searchable… and beyond that, it has to be friendly, navigable, and interactive.
To those who think that interaction means watching the words slide around… WRONG. It means that the visitor can interact with the site and the photographer. Non interactive sites are like showing your book to an AD while you are on your cell phone with a finger to your lips telling them to keep quiet.
I want to invite dialogue and comments and the ability to share.
Flash allows little of that along with the non-SEO reality. And when I hear people say “Oh, we got an HTML site running to allow for that…” well, I just smile. Sure you do. And sure it does.
Heh.
Posted on January 10th, 2010 at 12:43 am
Cris Mitchell:
Yeh what’s easier than managing 1 flash site managing an HTML site on top of it HAHA.
I agree SlideShowPro ROCKS but again it’s what i consider a web application and is tightly integrated with a php/mysql backend for easily managing your galleries. This is a perfect marriage and example of Flash and the web.
Cris…
Posted on January 10th, 2010 at 12:58 am
Matthew McMullen Smith:
Another huge consideration is more and more people are using mobile devices such as the iPhone which do not support Flash yet. I hate when I learn about a photographer and search on my iPhone to find an all flash site I can’t see. That’s a huge FAIL.
Posted on January 10th, 2010 at 1:42 am
Jeff Curto:
OK… Let me offer some counterpoint:
1) Audience and accessibility. Find me a currently shipping browser that doesn’t have the flash plugin installed when you install the browser. Part 2 of this is… find me a potential client who isn’t using a reasonably current browser. Can people in small villages in 3rd world countries see flash websites? No, but they also aren’t likely to be my audience/customer/client.
2) Agreed that “whiz-bang” isn’t important; images are. But, what Flash sites often offer is the ability to have images that are nice and big and scale with browser size.
3) You’re right that Flash sites are hard to update unless… unless you go with one of the high-quality commercial sites that are out there… LiveBooks, ZenFolio or Visual Server. Then, it’s easy. I always advise photographers who don’t want to monkey around with “learning how to ‘do’ the web” to buy into one of these turnkey situations. It’s fast, it’s easy and it works.
4) Totally right-on with this one. Mystery nav is no fun and bookmarking individual images/pages on a flash site is impossible.
5) Search. The big dog players in the Flash arena like LiveBooks have this nailed. They’ve spent a lot of time solving the problem of Flash vs. search. See:
http://www.livebooks.com/features-tour/overview#navbar=13
So… I’m not sayin’ you’re wrong here, but just that a lot of the problems have been solved. I’ll also say that I’ve mentioned LiveBooks a couple of times but I don’t work for them, just in case someone thinks I’m trolling.
Posted on January 14th, 2010 at 3:36 am
Cris Mitchell:
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the well thought out comment and let me first say I’m a fan of your work and the CameraPosition podcast you run.
I’ll address your points below.
1. Accessibility for me goes beyond the installation of the Flash plugin, it enters into the realm of alienating a group of people with disabilities whom for what ever reason have special browser needs which Flash doesn’t support. Again anytime you create a Barrier to Entry you run the risk of losing a job or sale. Granted I know that most users will have the flash player installed.
2. You can achieve this with other non flash and more compliant technologies such as ajax etc…
3. We are on the same page with this one.
4. Same Page
5. I’m not 100% convinced that live books and others are giving a fair assessment of how well their sites can be SEO’d. And I’m certain that it’s no where near the level that you can with other platforms like wordpress, joomla and others.
To add another layer of complexity to all of this, Google has set in motion a new set of initiatives for 2010 and that is Website size is now going to play a factor in search engine ranking. If this happens sites that are under 20k are going to rise to the top and all the bloated flash sites are going to fall off the map.
Just something to think about.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your insight.
Keep up the great work with your podcast.
Cris…
Posted on January 14th, 2010 at 4:01 am