This isn’t going to be the traditional Flash v plain text debate. It’s nothing like that. Simply, what is going to help your site most: a nice accessible page or a site which utilises all the latest technologies (you know, throw in some Flash here, some Javascript there, perhaps even some Silverlight)?

Now my personal viewpoint on it probably runs in defiance of many standard-touting web developers, but I would say both. Sure, use flashy new mediums, even if they come at the cost of maximum usability but only if it suits.

I will try and give you an example. Recently I redesigned the GOtxt.com.au site and whilst I anguished about whether or not to include some Javascript and opt for a design for higher resolutions I finally decided to go with it. Why? Because that website is aimed at a market and demographic which are much more likely to support those features. I still put effort into making it usable for other users, but it was not such an overriding concern compared to a corporate site.

That said I personally have a thing against 100% Flash websites. To be frank, my relationships with any that I have come across is less than cordial. There comes a point where Flash turns from useful and pretty into a vulgar obstruction that needs to be surgically removed from a website. I call that point, that line in the sand, “text”. If the body of your website, the main text of your website, is rendered in Flash then I will begin to come out in hives. They may be beautifully rendered, animated hives, but they will still not impress me.

Flash impares copying text. If I want to print out a site, I tend to select the text, chuck it into a document and print from there. Flash prevents me doing that in an easy manner.

Flash sites are often accompanied by another of my pet hates: uncontrollable music. Sure, ambient music can work in some cases, but if I can’t turn it off and have it stay off (even when I come back to visit next week) then I will again be less than cheerful.

The motto? Really good designs are great. I love them. I’d prefer if great design coincided with great usability and accesibility, but that isn’t always the case. Make compromises cautiously, look specifically at the demographic your website caters to and what they’re likely to feel. I like Flash, but I think like all mediums it has its limits. No one should view it as the utopian solution to web design - at least not in its current form, it is still too limited.