As a former flash enthusiast I have to say it kind of makes me sad.
I still think the user experience was better in some cases. Take for example the fellows at 2advanced. They set the bar very high for any web designer. While they still appear to be doing plenty of flash work, and great work at that, I wouldn’t say that this is the way the web design and development is moving toward. Before said perceived demise of Flash, I would say that there was a trend with many developers and web designers to move away from it. In fact some developers were dead against the use of Flash.
This trend was pushed even further with the onslaught of new Apple products. To say that the effect has been huge is an understatement. At one point I dismissed the mobile phenomena, or the lack of flash support as a temporary thing. I really thought that eventually Apple would start supporting it. Five years or so later and nothing has changed. In fact to my knowledge there is no plan by Apple to support Flash, other than a youtube player.
Before my current site design, my most recent portfolio site for example utilized flash almost exclusively to display all site elements. I provided a lackluster alternate page that was viewable on the iphone, other mobile devices or screen readers. However, every time I viewed the page with a mobile device I knew there was potential for unacceptable user experience. So, finally when I felt more compelled to blog and push more content other than my design portfolio, I went with the flow and adapted a WordPress theme that includes a responsive layout. This means that when viewing this site on an Iphone, Ipad, or other mobile device, the format will change or adapt responsively to the size of the screen. This can is also demonstrated if you resize the browser to a narrow view.
Further, 2advanced.com still uses an overall flash experience for desktop users. For mobile and other devices, they provide decent alternative. I havent tried this yet on a desktop browser with flash turned off, but they may have a decent alternative for that as well. They are 2advanced.
These technologies are standards that require no plugin. For the most part, modern browsers all support them. Hence, they work on most devices such as Iphones and Android devices flawlessly.
There are still instances one can find where a browser does not support a particular CSS style or Box model. Aside from mobile devices, Internet Explorer is notorious for having lack of support for somewhat standard adoptions like, at one point in the recent past, transparent PNG files. I still have not seen any multimedia website application using these standardized tools that looks anything near as rich in user experience as which can be done with Flash. Like in the case of 2advanced I challenge anyone to show me different. Really, i’m not kidding. I want to see it. I am sure that anything is possible. But at this point I think it isnt likely to happen anytime soon.
