Flash posts

There’s a concept in web design that is more important than responsive design, more important than mobile-first, more important than separating style and content; the most important concept in web design is backwards compatibility.

Most backwards compatibility is achieved by web designers with careful application of graceful degradation — the process by which advanced features are able to fail silently, without compromising content.

When we’re building sites, we can ensure that we provide support for even obsolete browsers.

Graphic design is a dirty business. It’s filled with people who excuse theft with tags like “inspiration,” backstabbin’ under the guise of “competition” and design by committee likenin’ it to the need for “betterin’ the product.”

Of course, that’s the good part of the industry. Me, well, I was the worst. A private investigator, a hired geek, handlin’ the small cases. A copyright infringement, stolen Wacom pens, missin’ fonts and other nonsense that doesn’t affect life or even surface to the normal freaks who walk the streets, unaware of design and those who practice it every day.

To me it was just a job. $50 a day plus expenses and $25 every time I have to use my gun. That extra $25 was a rare occurrence in this line of business. Design rarely has psychopaths that use anythin’ besides passive-aggressive snipes at each other. All I could afford was a small ad on the...

With close to a decade of experience in web design, I have come across plenty of mistaken beliefs about the latest design tools and technologies; but nothing beats the misconceptions surrounding the use of HTML 5.

As developers, we have our own set of misguided beliefs about a certain technology, but as we begin to use that technology we are able to understand what it is all about, its usage, and its scope.

Inspired by certain HTML5 requirements that I have come across through the course of time, I wanted to add my two cents to clear the air on certain aspects of HTML5. Most of the misconceptions surrounding HTML5 are because many people think it’s a replacement for Flash.

At the outset, I would like to make it clear that this...

A pseudo-Flash website is one that looks, feels and acts like a Flash website but is in fact built on good old-fashioned HTML and CSS.

There is usually also a dash of JavaScript to bring things to life and round out the interface.

The result is often beyond what we have come to expect of HTML and CSS, which is why we might assume the website is Flash-based. Right-click, though, and you will be pleasantly surprised.

I am keenly interested in pseudo-Flash websites,...

There are some definite downsides to building websites with Flash (key being the lack of support for Flash on iOS), but there are still plenty of sites out there that are built on Flash, and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.

And sometimes you’re going to have clients who are dead-set on having a Flash website.

But what if you don’t know how to use Flash? Do you spend hours trying to adapt a template, learning as you go? Or is there a better way?

Wix is a great option for anyone who wants to...