You know, when I get a bee in my bonnet, I just can’t let it go. I had to pursue the data to support my recent anti-Flash-website post because I can’t be the only consumer (and marketer) that is annoyed and frustrated by a useless Flash intro. This whole Flash-based website debate has spurred quite a conversation among my Twitter followers and I had the chance to speak with David Ginsburg, founder Hector Solutions and smart social media dude, about my rant. We discussed and here’s his $.02.
David said, “Flash frustrates the hell out of me. Stats have shown that you have approx 15 seconds to garner my attention and/or bring me to the content I am seeking from your website. Why would you waste that time waiting for your fancy Flash website to load? Anything built online needs to be done with the modus operandi of how does it benefit the end user? The move to HTML5 as the web design standard should help to accelerate the shift away from Flash-based websites because 5 is becoming the universal standard across the web.” ” He goes on to say, “Look at the iPad. Apple has sold somewhere around 25M of these devices and they are the clear leader in the tablet category…and even Apple devices don’t support Flash. In my opinion, Flash as a primary means of website design has had it’s time.”
I couldn’t agree more and would like to urge you marketers and designers out there to consider another way to get your message across – fast and succinctly – without using Flash. Pretty please…with a cherry on top? 15 seconds, baby.