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["Matt Pusateri" <mpusateri AT wickedtrails.com>]

On Tue, February 8, 2005 8:50 am, Colleen McCarthy said:
> Hi Folks,
>
> Can one of the Web Designer/Developers answer some questions?  I'll
> probably
> have more :), but for now:
>
> What is a connector in the context of ordering a product using the
> Web?
> Is there a tutorial or material anywhere that someone could point me
> to that
> speaks to designing the order entry components of a Web site?
> Is Flash the latest technology for creating a professional/glitzy/sexy
> Web
> site?  If someone who has been doing Web design and development for a
> while
> can could give an opinion of how Flash allowed them to create better
> Web
> pages I'd really appreciate it.  I know that Flash has been around for
> a
> while, but it seems that suddenly it has become widely used.
>
> Thanks much!
>
> Colleen
>
First, let me say that I am probably more of a sys admin than a web
programmer, but I have been heavily involved in several web projects
and developed several sites. Second, my opinions are my own, and I'm
sure that their are those who can and will disagree with them.

All that being said, I personally would not use flash for an
e-commerce site.  I am more of a purist, but I don't like flash.  Yeah
it makes things look nice for marketing types that do not even
understand what a URL is, but to me it is evil. Ok maybe evil is a bit
harsh.  Reason's why I don't like flash.

1. It limits your audience, because flash is not available for all
platforms. Yes it works well on Windows and Mac, but it's hard to get
it to play nice on Linux/BSD.  Plus the latest versions of flash which
you will probably be developing on are not readily available on
linux/bsd platforms.  Yes, I realize that this is a very small
percentage of the internet population, but it is still important for
you e-commerce site to be accessed by all.

2. It forces you to install software (flash plugin) on your machine,
While most people have flash plugin installed.  It is my opinion you
shouldn't be forced to install software just to use a site.  All sites
in general should be able to be displayed with a standard browser.  So
if you want flash, do a non flash site as well.

3. Flash does not lend itself well to people with disabilities. 
Screen Readers for the vision impaired do not function well with
flash.  Of course screen readers do not function well with regular
html forms either making it hard for the disabled to navigate a
e-commerce sites anyhow.  But why make it harder for them than they
already have it.

4. E-commerce sites should be standards compliant.  W3C, HTML or
XHTML, CSS, Section 508.  Relizing that XHTML & CSS will have varied
browser support.   But again, any standard browser should be able to
navigate your site.

5. While flash has the ability to interface with databases, I would
recommend and alternative development platform, such as perl, php, jsp
or even as a last resort asp, pages.  With the goal of your site being
able to be accessed by everyone, using almost any browser, with
limited browser specific coding, except where required to make up for
the fact the browser is not W3C compliant such as Internet Explorer
not recognizing some CSS tags or the like.

6. Again I feel Flash is not suited to an online order entry system. 
If you want something flashy on the corporate site or on your product
pages, to empress marketing types, then flash if your ticket. But
again there should be an alternatvie way to view all flash content. 
Maybe a PDF brochure as a universally readable alternative.

7. e-commerce sites are alot more complex than just getting a gui
development enviroment and just clicking your way through to a new
site. It sounds like you may need a more experience developer to guide
you around the learning curve it appears you about to take.  A
compentent web designer/graphic artist can make your site look glitzy
and professional without using flash.  Also their is a big difference
between web designers who do presentation/graphic artist work and web
developers who do database/programming work.


Matt Pusateri