Flash is Cool

One of the things I love about Flash is that it can streamline the navigation process of a webpage (when it's used correctly). For example, this fall, The Boston Globe did a five-part series using Soundslides and Flash. The J-school already uses Soundslides, and when it's mixed with Flash, an entire multimedia project can be presented quite simply on a single page. A reader can scroll over a button on the page if they want to find out more about one of the features, and it's pretty easy to move between parts of the page. The same holds true for this Minneapolis Star Tribune feature, called Witness. Flash allows readers to easily scroll through dozens of feature stories, and had the Star Tribune used basic HTML instead of Flash, it would be very difficult to navigate through these stories. The strange thing about Flash is that while it can simplify the design of a webpage, it can also allow you to have many more features on a page. So in reality, it makes things simple while adding complexity.