andrew dodson

I give up. I’m going to learn Flash.

I’ve resisted to this point. Why? Well, it’s not really standards-compliant. Meaning? Not everyone can view flash on websites. By saying “not everyone,” my not-so-scientific percentage would be, maybe, twenty-five percent. Mostly, the type of people that use the web for informational purposes and don’t care to download all the latest, wizz-bang plug-ins and features for their browser. Some might read this as “older folks,” but you didn’t hear me say that. I just don’t like making people that want to view my sites download something to view it correctly. Is that so bad? I’ve always said if the day came that Flash came installed on every browser 100% percent of the time, I’d gladly learn Flash.

It’s been all-the-rage in the internet world for several years now, and the rage continues to grow, it seems. Nearly ever web design job I’ve found on the web requires Flash experience. Everyone wants animation, videos, fade in effects, motion graphics, and other fancy features that only Flash seems capable of producing.

So, it seems I just need to give in and start learning it. I’ve done a few tutorials, and yes, it’s cool. It’s neat. It’s fun. But, it can also be way-overdone on a lot of sites. My hope is to learn to apply Flash - a.) only to sites that require Flash, and b.) in a tasteful way. Okay, I might break rule “a” every now and then.

Bottom line is this - if I’m trying to do web design full-time, I need to constantly learn new things, whether or not I like the new things personally. It’s the only way I can survive as a hopeful freelancer. So, getting BADmedia off the ground is kinda like going back to school at the same time. Except, this time, I’m the teacher and the student, sort of (with some help from the internet and books).