It’s been a while since the last time I wrote here in English. I frequently update another blog (rgblog.net) in Japanese because it’s my native language and easy to write whatever comes in my mind.
But I’ll try to write the same subject as much as I can here. Here’s the one I already wrote there: “What’s the purpose of the web site?” (translated directly from Japanese title). I just wrote about my recently growing question on the 100% Flash driven web site.
It was the year 2000 when Dr. Jakob Nielsen suggested “Flash: 99% Bad” in his Alertbox. It’s been 8 years but designers are still practicing bad habit. That’s revealed partially in the new article called “Four Bad Web Designs” (issued in April 13.)
This article made me think a lot because I’ve had been asked many times by the clients to make 100% Flash web site. Yes, the broadband and even T1 line technology are getting common recently. It’s no longer to be like the old school situation with 56k dial-up speed in most of places in U.S. However, we have to consider “Usability” first.
As an Internet user, I have many experiences like getting lost or taking long time to load a page in 100% Flash driven site. It’s acceptable to use Flash, if the users can expect what’s going to happen next, or know of conventionally interactive web site such as movie site and gaming site. I’ve seen some news magazine web sites in 100% Flash technology. I think it’s totally a suicidal practice. I immediately left that kind of web site because I don’t want to wait for loading.
If Flash is utilized for the purpose of the elegant appearance to impress people, it’s totally arrogant manner because it does not meet “Usability”. If you are a designer, you have to keep it in mind: What’s the purpose of the web site? Is this for providing information or just entertaining people? Most of the users are looking for quickly found information in the Internet.
Meanwhile, I am now reading a book called “SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bilble by Jerri L. Ledford“. She mentioned that 100% Flash driven site is not good for SEO. I don’t want to go in detail about it here because this blog post is already long article. But I think it’s kinda common theory, right? Flash is like a big chunk of embedded file in one HTML document. Google bot crawls over only one document without adequate information. So, no wonder it is not SEO friendly.
Anyway, I believe SEO is also associated with the web standards philosophy. Thus, I want to say if your web site meets the web standards, at the same time, it’s meeting usability, accessibility and SEO.
