[Hidden-tech] Restaurant websites built using Adobe Flash?

[rdmurray at bitdance.com]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2009 at 15:23, Info @ WinansCreative.com wrote:
> I'd liken it to making a good movie. Sure, we could sum it up for you 
> in 30 seconds, but to get our entire point across we might need 2 
> hours. We want you to get involved in our story. And in the end you

If you can get someone to stay with a web site for two hours,
you must be making a mint :)

> may have a different feeling about who we are. Maybe not in your case, 
> and yes, we will probably piss off a few people here and there, but if 
> we did our job, the majority of visitors will come across with a 
> feeling of what we're all about, instead of simply an informational 
> repository indicated by a URL.

But that's what the web _is_:  Information repositories and services
indexed by URLs.  Even the sites that provide video as a service are
repositories of video clips.  They don't have a flash movie on their
front page if they are at all successful.

If you build your information repository/service well, then the user will,
indeed, end up with a feeling of what the subject company is all about.

> I don't think we'll agree on this because everyone's internet viewing 
> habits are unique, and we definitely agree that usability/ 
> accessibility is a big deal across all of the web. However, the 
> question becomes at what point does catering too much to the past 
> prevent us from moving forward?

The very fact that you talk about "Internet viewing habits" makes me
think you are in the wrong mind set to effectively reach the largest
possible target audience.  "Viewing habits" are passive.  The Internet
is about interactivity first and foremost.

This isn't a matter of the past preventing us from moving forward.
This is a question of what the _site's_ target audience uses the
web for.  Sure, the _first time_ a visitor comes to the web site
they might get drawn in by flash (and that can apply equally well to
other kinds of flash, not just Flash specifically) and a deep story.
But every time after that they will be returning either for information
or for functionality.  A flash front page just gets in the way of that.

It's the repeat visitors that are important.  Not the people who
watch 30 seconds worth of the ad.

--RDM