We couldn’t blame them for being confused and it actually led not only to this article, but a fundamental change on how we deal with interested parties here at our Colorado web design company. We instituted a strict policy of always asking for an approximate budget expectation up front. This is not always a question folks are overly willing to answer but the reality is its helpful not only to us but also to them.
Since we started asking the question more pointedly we’ve uncovered further wildly oscillating bid stories (none quite so extreme luckily) .

As you may imagine our central point here is to get realistic bids. Make sure you have some sort of budget in mind going in to the conversation and know what your project scope is, at least approximately.

*Beware of any entity that gives you a bid without first asking you a lot of questions and evaluating your scope. If they don’t take the time to do this they are guessing, probably somewhat desperate, and really not someone you should deal with.

*Discount anybody who provides either ridiculously low or ridiculously high bids right off the bat- its not going to end well

*If you are talking to someone who has a very poor website or no website, run for the hills. A web company’s website is their own very best advertisement, it should fill you with confidence to hire them, rather than trepidation.

*And of course always beware of those who will promise you instant page 1 results on google, its not the way it works.

Web design is of course big business- every business in the country needs a website to a greater or lesser extent. Do your due diligence when evaluating prospective providers, there are numerous skilled and reputable ones, but also many who fly by the seat of their pants.

Best of luck!

Here are some predictions for the year:

1)HTML5 continues to gain traction, and later in the year ‘average site users’ begin to learn that browser updates may be required to view such encoded sites, in much the same way that everyone eventually figured out that downloading flash Player was needed.

2)Adobe rocks the house with the release of CS6. The new version of Flash has beta features to convert flash content to html5 code, thus addressing the mobile device issues. Underemployed flash developers breathe a collective sigh of relief.

3)Adobe also releases the first commercial version of Edge, although a lot of work still needs to be done on it to fulfill its potential.

4)3-D starts to become more widespread online. (Big Orange Planet home page, ahem)

5)The inexorable rise of mobile continues. Web development clients request responsive design techniques much more frequently, as they become more aware of the new web realities.

6)Google releases several further algorithm updates aimed at eliminating SERP gains achieved by spamming strategies.

7)Facebook overtakes Google in terms of unique US visitors (possibly).

On a less serious note:

1)The ultimate wordpress plugin (the ultimo) debuts, which contains all other wordpress plugins ever released.

2)Apple announces they were only joking, and of course they’ll start supporting flash any day now.

3)Google’s first major update of the year quickly gets christened ‘the anteater update’, as it sticks its nose into everything.

4)The mysterious, elitist race known as “the Drupalians”, continue to bizarrely insist that all content management systems but theirs’ are worthless.

5)It emerges that PHP actually stands for “Pretty Hip Party”.

6)The iphone-5 sells out 4 months before its invented.

Wishing you the best for 2012..

One of the early effects has been the web development community’s recent
shift away from usage of Adobe Flash driven websites. This has been
largely attributable to increased takeup of the iphone and ipad and
Apple’s longstanding refusal to support Flash player on those devices. The
reasons for this have been widely well documented.
But even in devices such as Android whose most recent incarnations support
Flash Player, the interactive user experience is lessened in a ‘mouse-less
environment’.

This aside, how websites display in the mobile realm is sure to become an
ever growing concern of both site owners and consumers alike. With growing
usage there will come growing attention. As a result web developers who do
not jump on board with optimizing their site builds for both PC and mobile
devices will get left behind.

If one is to look at a random selection of websites on various devices and
operating systems, a wide range of display quality variations will soon be
detected.
Illegible text, distorted images and skewed tables among other things are
some of the device type discrepancies that may be noted.

So what sorts of techniques can be adopted to ensure optimal display of
any given website regardless of device type?
There are a few different approaches been used:
1.Develop separate site versions for mobile devices and PCs. This involves plenty of extra coding- i.e. two sites for the price of one. However it can produce excellent results with a script running which decides which version the viewer will see. This allows for a rich web experience even on a small screen.
2. Define the site for mobile devices using CSS. This can be a much simpler solution to code when implemented correctly. This can often involve just showing the left portion of the site on a phone without a noticeable break- horizontal scrolling can be used to view the rest of the site in smaller screen environments.
3. Utilize responsive design techniques. This involves effectively slimming down the website as the resolution decreases. Text aggregates into thinner and thus readable columns, while images also ‘go on a diet’. This can look great when done well.
4. Minimize the site down to bare bones by removing images and style features. This is probably the easiest of all these approaches to implement, but has its pros and cons as they all do.
As the ‘mobile web’ continues to gain traction, we will doubtless see other methods added to this list and further development of those methods listed above. To ensure a successful future, those making a living in the World of Web Design should sit up and take note.

However by the end of 2008 Flash Player could be found on about 99% of PCs Worldwide per statistics from Adobe. If you had a cool Flash site, most people could see it.
Hip and slick flash websites were all the rage and developers were flocking towards the Flash environment.

Flash CS4 launched that year and incorporated a new robust Media Encoder, which meant that most formats of video could now be streamed though Flash too (So AVI, DV, MPG, MOV files could all now be turned into FLV flash video). This made Flash video the premiere and most widely used movie playing software on the web.

Adobe had also in 2006 launched the new, super sleek version of its programming language, Action Script 3.0. This object orientated programming language was something Flash programmers and developers had been needing for years. So now Flash could also be used to program fabulously funky, fully functioning shopping carts .

Flash had done it again, it had morphed to become what was dreamed of it.

So why are we now seeing the start of the demise of Flash on the web?
There are 2 major contributing factors:
1.The SEO drawbacks have never been overcome. As the output of Flash is a movie, its very difficult for search robots to adequately parse and index flash content online. It is true the method of deep linking using swf address has somewhat helped in this area. However the fact remains that all other things being equal, a code based site will out-perform a flash site in search results.
2.The rise of the handheld device. The refusal of the Apple organization to support Flash on its devices has been much discussed, and the fundamental reasons (both technical and economic) are well understood. See Steve Jobs’ 2010 article on the topic.
However the underlying truth is that Flash excelled in the era of the PC and the mouse. It is far less ideal for use on mobile devices in terms of resources and interactivity with touch screen as opposed to mouse. This is true despite Android’s recent Flash support initiatives.
And I for one am not hanging on for the day when Apple will ever support Flash Player on its devices.

The general consensus of the many flash developers in our circle is that its time for us all to move on.
Our affiliate who sells flash components has noted a drastic drop in demand recently. In this case we judge its only a matter of time before the general public accepts the realities as our community sees them.
Indeed it would appear to this writer at least, that Adobe, with the release of Edge for HTML5 authoring, is reaching similar conclusions. It is my fervent hope that Edge will evolve as beautifully as Flash did.
RIP Flash websites, I’ll miss you.

So what will replace Flash use on websites and how will this change the Web?

There is very little doubt that a vast proportion of web interactivity over the coming years will be driven through HTML5. Audio and video files for example can now be easily implemented through the language by simple tags.

The great open source language PHP will doubtless continue to feature heavily in dynamic web development initiatives. As for established open source content management frameworks, WordPress looks set to continue in its meteoric usage rise.

We expect to see a lot more 3-D file integration in websites soon. The intelligently applied use of After Effects and Cinema 4D will bring a very fresh look to websites. As downstream bandwidth rates rise exponentially the barriers to running 3-D applications will disappear.

But none of the above can do elegant animated interactivity as brilliantly as Flash.

Therefore there is nothing to totally replace Flash, but there are enough other cleaner elements out there that maybe this doesn’t matter anymore. (anyone remember director after all?). We have all gotten over our amazement that the web exists at all, and we no longer need to watch a slick interactive flash animation to bedazzle ourselves. us still further. Now we primarily want information quickly from the information super high way. Information, research, entertainment though video or music, shopping and banking are all items we want from our time spent online.
And all of this is easier without the pre-requisite demands of Flash..

As for Flash itself, it has always exhibited masterful ability for adaptation. Right now it is being heavily used in online gaming. The millions of sites incorporating Flash are unlikely to disappear overnight.
So while the future of flash in website development is waning, it may well carve itself a new alternative path forward.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

We will be tidying up any loose ends over the coming week- however please feel free to point out anything we may have overlooked.

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