Insight
April 19, 2007 On Responsible Web Design, Flash
Web Standards guru Jeffrey Zeldman blogs about an unfortunate site design he recently encountered, one with vital information, but lacking links to share:
But there are, as near as I can determine, no “pages” on the site. It’s all Flash text (pixellated 1997 style) in squat little iframes. You are always, essentially, on the home page. If you’re lucky enough to stumble onto what you came looking for, you won’t be able to bookmark it or share it. I could spend an hour discussing what’s wrong with this site, but so could anyone reading this. You all know this. Why don’t the site’s creators?
He says of the agency behind the site's development:
...they have no business designing websites, if this is the best they can do on behalf of a leading organization whose purpose is to recognize and promote visual culture.
Information architecture. Usability. Accessibility. Web standards. If you don’t know about these things, stop designing websites until you have learned. Competence in graphic design is merely a baseline; it does not qualify you to create user experiences for the web.
I wholeheartedly agree, and embrace the solution.
I'm partly pointing out the mindset that I'd like potential clients, as well as my peers, to appreciate: Smart development that works for users and works for site owners. I'm also taking the opportunity to highlight some Flash implementation techniques that I've been discussing with colleagues recently.
Maintainability, Accessibility, Searchability...These are the benefits of smart web development that I highlight for clients, typically when talking about Web standards-based development using XHTML and CSS. But these benefits are available with Flash as well. Just like CSS, Flash can be treated just as a presentation layer. That presentation layer can sit atop a well-formed, semantically marked-up XHTML layer that comprises an entire alternate HTML site that Google can crawl, and that assistive and mobile devices can read.
The Flash layer makes calls to the pared-down HTML site to load content in, so your site is maintainable through HTML editing and/or a CMS, and relies on the HTML layer to pop users into the right spot in the Flash layer based on search results.
The Flash layer also synchronizes navigation between different states with the HTML layer and browser, which not only updates the URL/Location bar to make links into the Flash shareable, but also enables the browser buttons to navigate within the Flash layer.
With a little extra effort and thought at the design and implementation onset, you have a site that's not only 100% (or more!) more accessible, navigable, and findable, but is also easier to maintain going forward.
And you won't face the ire of the web design guru.
Interested in learning more? Email mjr@c77studios.com.