Flash Won’t Die Stop Trying to Kill it
Monday, February 1st, 2010It’s a hot button topic and yes I am biased. But I’m growing tired of the Flash hate that’s been growing over last few years. I’m also tired of defending the technology. So I’m going to break it down as simple as I can why I believe HTML5 won’t kill Flash.
- Interactive Storytelling and Emotional Communiction
- Flash is not static
Say It Ain’t So Steve
It was recently rumored that Steve Jobs held a town hall style meeting to discuss plans for Apple. In this meeting he allegedly said:
Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5. - Steve Jobs
One’s and Zero’s Are Not the Problem
HTML5 will be a much needed upgrade. And i’m really excited for continued standardization especially when it comes to audio and video. However, Steve if you’re reading this, Flash is a proprietary technology and it may not be optimized for your devices but it’s popularity can not be tossed aside. Why not? Well, it offers something that no other technology provides. Interactive storytelling that appeals to human emotion. Read that again and really take it in.
Interactive Story Telling and Emotional Communication
No one can dispute that video is a great way to tell a story. Although you can do it with words the old adage does say a picture tells a thousand words. And at 24 frames per second, that’s a lot of words. Despite video being a great way to communicate on an emotional level it’s locked into to a specific sequence. Plainly video lacks interactivity.
Flash is not static
You see Flash fits nicely between the emotional response of video and the interactive capabilities of HTML5. Despite both of these technologies being great at what they do HTML5 and video are static.
static
a : characterized by a lack of movement, animation, or progression b : producing an effect of repose or quiescence <a static design>
Video lacks dynamic user driven controls and HTML5 via javascript can animate content but it lacks storytelling.
This isn’t about key frames and it’s not about file formats. Really think about that. It’s about sequentially dynamic communication. Their combined weaknesses of HTML5 and Video are the strengths of Flash platform.
Would you ever create a movie with JQuery? No. It’s a great technology for transitions, but it falls short as a visual story telling technology.
Would you ever film 100 pages of content and pop in and out of each “page” accepting that the video won’t line and the lack of transitions from jumping around the play head of a video file? Maybe, but the experince suffers.
Flash is a great blend animation and content for interactive storytelling. Until another technology can do this to the satisfaction of both designers, videographers, and end users stop hating. Accept it.
One more thing…
Oh yeah. Steve, don’t filter my options. Let me decided if Flash runs too slow.
