No, not that Flash.

Flash receives a fair amount of criticism these days. Steve Jobs and Apple would have you believe that it’s game over for the adaptable web veteran, but Adobe are sticking to their guns. Who’s right?

No Flash on the iPhone or iPad

Flash is notable by its absence on Apple’s popular mobile devices the iPhone and the iPad. Many thought this was a strange omission initially (myself included). Apple recently posted a statement was posted on their website explaining their position.

Their main reasons are:

• Flash is not open standards based
• It’s not reliable
• It’s not secure
• It has a negative impact on the performance of the client’s computer/device
• It can’t be used properly with touch screens.

The first point is something that a lot of web professionals have been making a noise about for years. But, a lot of others have been using it gratuitously regardless.

Apple’s case is quite a solid one. The reduction in the use of Flash on websites over the last couple of years is partly for these reasons they have outlined. But, it’s also due to a better understanding of usability. People generally don’t care about animation and whizz bang – they just want to get things done.

So, does that mean we shouldn’t use Flash anymore?

Well, no. It’s true that we should be using other technologies for some of the things that we have been using Flash for up until now. However, these shouldn’t always be seen as suitable replacements. Flash still gives us a lot of flexibility to do things that just can’t be done with other technologies, or at least can’t be done as well. One example is interactive tools that demonstrate how complicated things work. Videos mixed with animations, text and interactive components can be combined to create excellent educational tools. There are other useful pieces of functionality that can be added to a website with Flash, but the point is that they should be selected carefully and all factors should be considered beforehand.

Back in 2000, Jakob Nielsen pointed out that Flash is 99% bad. The points he made about the virtually limitless options encouraging design abuse have been vindicated over the subsequent years. However, this is not the fault of Flash – it’s the fault of bad design. It’s a bit like saying that science is bad because it has produced nuclear weapons.

Also, Flash used to be completely inaccessible, but this has been addressed by both Macromedia and now Adobe.

What has changed then?

In the past people would say things like “let’s add some Flash”. But what we should be saying is “we want users to be able to do X, Y and Z on the site” – and then decide what technology is the best option, all things considered. Of course we should then test that it’s a success and rethink things if it’s not.

Moving forward, a big consideration when thinking about using Flash is going to be which devices can actually display it. Currently if you want your site to be viewed on mobile devices then it’s not a good idea to use Flash, but that might change. You should always be thinking about a different experience for mobile users anyway.