Macromedia Flash is a vector graphics platform that has superseded Shockwave, DHTML, and Java to become the way to make complex interactive elements on a page. Most of my work is very specifically managing low-bandwidth, content-rich sites, and Flash has long been on my banned list.

Yes, I know that Flash is a better format than GIF for small animated page elements. And Flash is also an excellent platform for creating interactive elements that are difficult to make in DHTML: things like map drill-downs, diagrams, and all sorts of animations.

The problem is, hardly anyone uses Flash for these things.

What one finds instead are "Flash-only" sites: lumbering behemoths that load slowly, cannot be searched, and that break the back button and other elements of the standard browser interface. Flash only sites are islands in the Web, but they aren't the Web.

Yes, I know many designers love the freedom Flash gives them. They like to take over the screen, redefine the interface, and add creative motion to their sites. I say go for it, but like anything that is challenging, prepare for rejection and misunderstanding. All the things that make Flash wonderful make a Flash-only site, in a Web context, unusable.

Some people on the Flash side see the danger. CHris MacGregor at Flazoom has written a short essay called A Cancer on the Web called Flash. It's a nice reality check for Flash and strict Web designers both. Writes Chris:

Recently I have been seeing a lot of Flash sites that are very nicely designed but so far away from a good web experience that I began to wonder just what was up with the designers of those sites. Do these hot shots even care about the people who are visiting the Flash sites that they create? In the case of Manhattan design firm Kioken the answer is no.