Extreme HTML
The Unnecessary Hesitation of Web Design Evolution
by D.L. Kuhar and Lisa Evenson
I remember back when Teddy Grahams, the snack, went to an extreme teddy grahams look. Instead of your cute, cuddly teddy bear shapes, the bears strutted roller blades and skateboards. Those were not my teddy grahams. Broken wheels had taken the place of paws at the bottom of boxes all over this great land. There are some things that shouldn't be messed with. Teddy Grahams are at the top of this list.
I subscribe to one rule for change. I ask myself how this will enhance my experience, whatever that experience may be. Teddy bears on roller blades, skateboards, and snowboards did not enhance my snack eating experience.
Cable, on the other hand, is a different story. For without, one can spend a Tuesday night moving from couch to chair to floor with a foil covered wire hanger in an attempt to find that one, lone wave that will carry "24" into your living room. Just as Mr. Sutherland introduces himself, you sit and hope that the next-door neighbor decides to go without that frozen margarita - yes, blender interference.
Similarly, my rule for change applies to the Internet and my chosen profession, graphic design. In the past five years, I've watched the Internet expand and collapse. It's caused ridicule and praise, moved from an amateur mockery of personal web pages to a well-respected marketing and advertising tool. Nevertheless, as with most everything, people are hesitant to accept its evolution.
In the past, web design was limited to the static, inconsistent, and easily pirated world of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) circa 1995. The onset of Flash brought web design capability closer to that of print design with the addition of countless new features: movement, animation, click and drag, and viewer interactivity. Flash simplifies web site multimedia design into as few files as possible, based not on a tangled mess of page upon page upon page, but on layers within one, all-incorporating.FLA file.
The nicest quality Flash offers a web designer and site owner is design protection. Flash files can't be downloaded and modified; concepts can't be stolen easily.
Flash offers convenient, scrollable text feeds for easy copy updates. It also brings multimedia to the web through animation and interaction, high-fidelity audio and video support, intuitive natural and Bezier drawing tools, shape distort and envelope modifier, pixel snapping, color management, and vertical text fields. Flash also allows design and content deployment to any browser, platform, or device supporting the Macromedia Flash Player, the most widely distributed rich-client technology on the Internet.
Despite its functional benefits, Flash has two flaws. Flash is not search engine friendly, with the exception of FAST, and requires the latest software plug-in.
The former has caused much debate. Although search engines haven't caught up to this technology, based primarily on scanning HTML copy for keyword density, all marketing campaigns should use numerous and varied advertising vehicles as opposed to just one. Additionally, HTML content aside, pay-per-click or sponsored search options, word of mouth, direct mail, strategic linkage, and the media are all responsible for optimal search engine rankings. Amazon.com was not built on search engines alone.
The latter is neither a significant downfall, as 98 percent of U.S. computers are loaded with Flash 3, 96 percent with Flash 4, and 92 percent with Flash 5, according to the NPD Online Worldwide survey conducted in September of 2002. Statistics are similar worldwide. Flash penetration includes pre-loaded default accessibility in Windows 95, 98, ME, and XP, Mac OS 8, 9, 10, 10.1 and above, Windows Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0, Netscape 6 and the Communicator, AOL, RealPlayer, QuickTime, Veon Player, @Home, Web TV, NeoPlanet, Corel Linux, Stromix Linux, Mandrake, and Caldera systems.
In comparison, HTML creative design capability is about as valuable as sitting a tax accountant in front of a manual typewriter on April fifth.
1. HTML offers only limited formatting options and lacks the most fundamental page-orient capabilities as hanging indents, white-space control, justification, kerning, and hyphenation. Thus, even the simplest of designs lead to highly variable coding.
2. There's no way to ensure your web site design will appear consistent on different browsers. There's no single HTML standard. Different browsers support different, non-standard HTML extensions to the standard HTML tags such as the blink and center tags. This leads to viewing problems.
3. HTML provides rudimentary linking capabilities, allowing only one-to-one links, and requires a target-end anchor to access anything within the document.
4. HTML offers one, inextensible tag set for all.
5. HTML offers limited, predefined data structures.
6. HTML offers no formal validation.
7. HTML trades power for ease of use.
8. HTML is only useful on simple applications. Building complex HTML pages are time consuming and inefficient.
9. HTML is handcrafted including all links, navigation, and indexing. It's easy to write bad HTML and make mistakes, such as omitting '>' or '/' characters.
10. HTML concentrates on form, not substance.
11. Despite its multimedia capabilities, HTML content is still static. HTML wasnít designed for multimedia. Once you've loaded a page, you have limited interaction with it, most of which through simple, hypertext links.
In conclusion, Flash passes my rule for change. It brings web site design into a creative as well as contextual medium, holding viewers' attention and curiosities. This program certainly cannot be considered extreme HTML. Although it has the capability, it doesn't parade snowboards or roller blades. But, Flash does enhance my experience as a web site viewer and as a graphic designer.
Copyright 2003, D.L. Kuhar and Lisa Evenson, http://www.visualcontent.com, Burlington, Vermont. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Permission can be obtained by emailing the co-author at levenson@visualcontent.com
About the Author
Dina Kuhar worked as senior graphic designer for TMP Worldwide for 12 years prior to establishing Visual Content, http://www.visualcontent.com. She has a degree in specialized technology, Visual Communications, from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
Lisa Evenson earned her B.A. in English from Cal State University, San Bernardino. She’s taken additional MSA courses in finance, public relations and total quality management. Lisa is co-founder of Visual Content.