9 out of every 10 people who contact me about web design/development projects list Flash as one of their website requirements. Despite this, I have yet to talk to a single client who actually needs Flash on the site. For whatever reason, the general public seems to associate ANY interactivity and movement, no matter how basic, with Flash. I’ve heard all of the following reasons for why people think they absolutely need Flash on their site:
- Embedded Videos
- Photo Galleries
- Drop Down Menus
- Menu Hover Effects
- Dynamic Content
It’s funny enough that all of this BASIC website functionality is easily accomplished without Flash, but when you start thinking about the excellent interactivity that can be achieved with DHTML and Javascript libraries like jQuery and Prototype, Flash starts to seem incredibly obsolete. I don’t know who out there is informing everybody that they need Flash on their website, but man, it has to stop. My emails to clients are really turning into broken records, listing the project requirements one by one and explaining how that’s not Flash and why it’s better that way.
