I keep seeing this over and over again. I do not understand why some companies feel the need to replace HTML style websites with Flash files. If there was some benefit of animation or usability, I could understand. I am talking about the ones that actually try to replicate the look of an HTML site but by using Flash.

To me, this seems like making an advanced 360-degree hologram projection of a 1970’s television set. You know, you could just get a 1970’s TV instead? Why use something that offers benefits to create something that has already been made (and better).

I have seen several websites that do this, but the one that recently just tipped me off into writing this is Fi’s latest creation Kontain. I mean no disrespect to Fi, the creators, or their intentions by writing this entry. The site is beautifully done and Fi has always been known for going above and beyond in their quality of work. I recently had to downgrade to Flash 9 in order to test some websites that used the Flash uploader (which no longer works in Flash 10 due to security restrictions). I went to Kontain.com to check it out and found that I could not view it without Flash 10.

First off, I have not so far seen a reason on this site that would require Flash 10. I have not even seen a reason to use anything beyond Flash 8 here, but maybe I have missed something. The site design is very well done, but replicates typical CSS style layouts. The animation is not much more than your everyday CSS / AJAX website so I do not really see the purpose of loading a Flash application here. Text could be smoothed using Flash and embedding fonts, but it is all regular just like HTML. The only thing I have seen that would be a “benefit”, if you could call it that, is a custom context menu. Then again, it does not really offer any benefits, so perhaps I used the wrong word.

The inital load, straight from the get-go, is a whopping 2 MB! lib_common.swf taking up the bulk at 345kb (!?) Followed by gui.swf (254kb), and with several others following … fonts.swf (90kb), another gui.swf (45k) and more.

Personally, and I may be alone in this, I think people should use the right technology for the right project. If you are going to making something that simulates CSS and AJAX… Just use CSS and AJAX. If there is an actual benefit to using Flash, use Flash.

And for the sake of everything holy,

OPTIMIZE!!

Stop producing sites that are 5MB+ that could easily be < 1MB. STOP BEING LAZY.