Friday Flash Fun Retrospective

The last 10 years has seen use of Flash morph from a pointless distraction to web dominance and subsequent backlash. Even the most hardened Flash supporter would have to admit that the excesses of the past were the result of designers running wild and forgetting about the best interests of the user.

The current thinking surrounding Flash advocates a more responsible usage, and Flash has made great strides recently in the two areas it was traditionally poor at: accessibility and search engine optimisation.

Whatever your view of Flash, it’s fair to say that when used well, it can create a fantastic user experience, and one with the “Wow” factor. To demonstrate this, The Favourite Website Awards, has published its list of Most Influential Flash Sites of the Last 10 Years..

It’s a fantastic look at the best Flash sites of each year in the past decade, and it shows not only how Flash has matured as a technology but also how web and user interface design has changed so much too. The most recent examples are mind blowing.