Recently, I went to a band website to buy some music. It was a band site, so it has to be hip, and that means an all Flash site. Roh-roh! I’m not going to go on a total rant and expose the site but suffice to say that I was tortured and never was able to buy the music I wanted. (Had my credit card out and everything!)

It started with an intro loading screen that could not be bypassed by a “skip into” STEEEERIIIIIIIIIIKE ONE! Then there was some type of “mystery meat” navigation system to try to get to the section to purchase the CD… STEEEERIIIIIIIIIIKE TWO! And finally when I found the CD purchase area the link to purchase engaged a pop-up that my browser blocked… STEEEERIIIIIIIIIIKE THREE!

Now I’m not totally opposed to all Flash sites. For creatives that want to really have a site that pops, it does make some sense. However, it probably makes most sense to have an integrated site that has Flash and some normal layout with CSS and HTML. Then, it can be indexed and found by search engines. For the moment, most all Flash sites are invisible to search engines.

One all Flash site that I really like was designed by our newest designer, Daniel Rouse. He did it for SOMA Media Arts up in Lowell. Very nice Dan, but make sure you use your powers for good!