Citrus Skies

MTV Abandons Flash Website

26 April 2007

Just 9 months after its launch, MTV’s all-Flash website has been scrapped and replaced with a ‘regular’ HTML site. MTV Labs state that the reason for the change was that the Flash site was “something of a headache for a lot of users” and go on to list the benefits of the new HTML site.

Usability and accessibility issues with Flash sites are hardly something new, but still we see many companies opting for full Flash sites perhaps without considering all of the consequences. That’s not to say that Flash doesn’t have its place on the web. There are things that you can do in Flash, which simply aren’t possible in HTML, no matter how much scripting you add. However, for full websites, the deciding factor must be what works (and can look good) over what just looks good.

The problem with many Flash sites, though it can occur with HTML sites too, is that they ignore the usability concept summed up by Jakob’s Law (named for web usability expert Jakob Nielsen), which states that:

“Users spend most of their time on other sites”

In other words, if your site’s interface is too different to what the majority of visitors are familiar with, they’re probably not going to understand or enjoy using your site. Needless to say then that visitors falling into this category aren’t going to hang around for long.

I observed this issue personally, when I was asked to create a new HTML website for AllHockeyGear.com [portfolio page] to replace their existing Flash site.

On the old site, the developer had created a menu system were visitors had to click and drag a little button to scroll through the product menu. There was nothing particularly wrong with it and it did work, but it wasn’t what people were used to and many visitors complained about it being cumbersome or awkward.

Within weeks of switching to the Plain Old Semantic HTML (POSH) site, with its easy-to-use text-based product menu, the volume of sales through the site had increased noticeably. The new menu may not be as fancy as the old Flash one and it does take up more room on the page, but its hard to argue with the end result of more money coming in.

Unfortunately, the problem of “bad” Flash sites looks like it will be with us for some time to come. However, we can take heart from that fact that those who do realise the errors of their ways, may come knocking on our doors to develop the replacement sites.