Flash, does it have an expiration date?

Flash, are we setting the stage to see the end of you within the next 5 years? With the open source movement and the surge in mobile technology I think you need to reconsider your game plan. That’s how I would write a personal letter of concern to Adobe if I was allowed to and if they cared. As I see it Flash has found itself in an interesting position.

Lets take a look at whats available today and what support is out there for technology like flash. According to Adobe Flash Player® 10 has a 94.2% penetration in the US Market. It’s safe to say that for the concern of this article, that’s our general population. 300 million+ use flash player 10. Really ? I think the statistic is off. Out of 5 active macs on my network only 2 have version 10.0. So that doesnt make 94.2% at all. It barely passes 35%. Well this is another story. (http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html)

What is the benefit of a Flash Website

For one thing, flash is a terrific timeline driven animation application. True to its roots, each version of Flash capitalizes on the previous version’s motion abilities. From fades to swirls, 3d bumps, jiggles and zooms its all good. ActionScript is robust and becoming increasingly complete version by version. The new ECMA Scripting standard has really comprised the library into a compendium of powerful and agile functions and object oriented programming abilities. Flash provides a user experience far beyond the static. Flash overcomes the pop and delivers with a bang.

What im not supported?

All of this and more is included just as long as your browser supports it and if you have a core2 processor or better. Flash is a memory hog. It eats RAM like pac man with unlimited 1-ups. This is why flash will never be on a mobile device that aspires to have decent battery life and this is why I choke when I read that flash has upwards of 50% penetration on global internet markets. Flash you are a plug in, therefore you depend on hardware acceleration and proper licensing to run. If we aren’t up to date, my fancy pre-loader and animated text is not going to appear.  You don’t play well with dynamic data outside of ColdFusion® or Flex® and frankly despite the condensing and well known advantages of ECMA, I miss your old style.

SEO/SEM/ROI, these benefits are not easy to gain with a full Flash website. Google can’t crawl my text just yet. Instead I have to dynamically reproduce my text in an include file or hidden meta tag just to get my descriptions to load.

Every time I want to get the latest it isn’t a download away, its $1500 bones and more system requirements, patches and updates away.

There is nothing more captivating to the short attention span than a brilliant Flash site, but for me this doesn’t cut it. For my clients the ROI is severely limited as a result of the plugin based and overcomplicated– under supported embedding of flash into an HTML 4.1 document.

What are my alternatives ?

Open Source. “Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product’s source materials—typically, their source code.” Meaning, I can download a script edit it to my custom settings, build into its DOM and post it. I’m not a criminal, I’m smart and I’ve condensed my file from 7.5k to 6.5k which makes my page load .5 seconds faster!

JavaScript is fast becoming the animated alternative to Flash. Why is this ? Because it’s easy, back-end friendly and it can be included without reclusive embed codes and overwhelming file sizes. I can build a site with AJAX and PHP and include a stunning image slideshow with a few includes and one single script to call my files. It’s CSS friendly (as is Flash) but even more so. Clients will find JavaScript easy to use because it works with their content management systems. I can use a library like JQuery to load stunning animated windows and text without overburdening my browser. My entire library is only a few K and its growing day by day.

Someone said to me “JQuery, that’s not going anywhere”. DEAD WRONG. Perhaps the inert DOM isn’t much to rile over, but plugins are developed day in and day out. As long as you have the DOM loaded up you can run anything you want with a simple call to function.

Okay so what’s the plan ?

HTML 5. The future of the web and the push that will move Flash and it’s painful problems ahead. HTML 5 presents a plethora of game-changing updates that will take the application driven aspects of Flash and combine them with a whole new heart. With the release of CSS3, HTML5 and all new API’s, Flash will have to make a game change and start to think about how to reduce a client’s draw to view it’s content and how to harness its potential at the least processor and browser expense.

In conclusion…

If you want a Flash site, you got it. But I will persuade you to test out my PHP 5 AJAX website first. Tell me if the ability to update your site from any internet location (including your phone) doesn’t tickle your fancy. If it doesn’t, than you don’t want to hear my Flash speech.

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Trench Warefare, recovery is on it’s way.

I have been entrenched in a desperate lack of creativity for the last 2 months. I bet we have all said that to another or ourselves at one point. I can’t explain how I arrived in this strange place; I can only say that I am beginning to pull out. As an individual I am vulnerable to outside influence; hence the principal concept of art and the importance of competition. This is truly a scary and alien environment for me. It is as if I have completely run out of steam, but there is water and fire all around me. I am just incapable of turning the two into a final product. Is it possible to re-inflate your creative bubble? I am here to tell you that it is indeed possible. Now stay focused and keep your mind open to what I have to say. This may sound a little unorthodox but I assure you, if I can walk free of my un-creative and lack luster bounds you can to.

So you’re in a rut, suck it up sport.

Don’t harness all of your time and energy focusing on the problem at hand. Sure we all love to complain; in fact it’s a big stress reliever. It’s also a big red flag in such a way that it provokes constant thought on what’s bothering you. Constant relishing on the topic will only make things worse. So how do you overcome your issues? Get out of your normal environment, take a drive go to a book store. As a designer you must love technology so get up and get to the Apple store pick out your dream ride and play around with a tablet or two. Anything to help you remove yourself from the same place you work in every day. Your studio or desk can be your greatest beacon of hope and it can also be the bane of your existence. On a personal note, my first step in getting through this hurtle was to go on a vacation. I went skiing and 7 days later I completed a full mental reboot. If you can’t go skiing the first idea should do the trick.

Don’t touch that computer, don’t think about it.

You went to school for fine art. As a designer you know how to draw, you can sketch your way around the world if you had to. So listen ace, sit down with a pen and pad and let your mind to all the work. Use your hands to interpret that dream layout or your new portfolio site. Even if you don’t use these ideas, they are valuable exercises in getting your mind well on track. Don’t sit on your computer and fool around in Illustrator or Photoshop because you will only find frustration in the little things that often make or break your workflow. Lack of fonts, your brushes palette is not where you left it or mac mail annoys you when it beeps. Go back to your roots and explore the finer side of your industry. Not all of your designs may start by sketching, but it may be a valuable communication asset for your next job or presentation; as awfully textbook as it sounds you may find this particularly useful even if outside the box.

Books and Magazines.

Get to a bookstore, go to the art section and find 3 inspirational books. One book can be something you may not know anything about, a complete mystery science. The second should be something like a theory book or a compendium of essays from real world designers in really world situations. You can relate and confide in their honesty and outcomes. Lastly buy some sort of resource guide with free fonts, patterns, elements you name it just find it. Browse around and pickup anything that strikes your eye. Even if you don’t buy it, hell you used your eye for the first time in a while to critically analyze something. On your exit, stop by the periodicals. Look at your favorite design or enthusiast magazine. Find something and get excited, try to inspire yourself. You need to get these creative juices bubbling again.

Tackle a project.

So by now we all know you are letting someone down, or you just haven’t mustered up the bones to start that new project. Well get started. Start slow and ease into your ideas. Work on paper first then flesh out into your software. Mock up your ideas and test them among your peers or look at it from different angles in different mediums. Just jump without looking and don’t think to look down or look back. See what you want to accomplish and confidently execute your steps towards completion.

Music.

Put on your favorite album or let your music player run on shuffle. Your ideas aren’t alphabetized so why should your music be? Let your ambiance be as frugal as your thought. Consistency sometimes fosters passive inspiration which is a proponent to your uninspired side.

In summation it’s important to treat your lack of creativity as another project. We cannot constantly keep the ideas churning day and night, but we can surely do the right thing to mend our dry spells. Another big proponent to a healthy designer mind is confidence. Confidence with modest intention can be your greatest propellant. Use that “I can do that” mentality as much as you can. Don’t get distracted and Tweet, or Facebook status your problems into syndicated sublimation. Ignore the social world and take some of your time to focus on that thing that keeps you in business.

Your passion, your art and your determination.

Here’s a quote.

“…First you dont, you dont succeed
you gotta recreate your misery
cause we all know art is hard
young artists have gotta starve
try and fail and try again
the comforts of repetition
keep churnin out those hits…”

“..You gotta sink gotta sink gotta sink to swim
impersonate greater persons
cause we all know art is hard
when we dont know who we are..”

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