Inaccessible Flash

February 12, 2009

By: Brian Miller

A friend showed me the new photoshop.com today. A photo sharing application built by Adobe that tries to be like Flickr, but isn't. I clicked on Test Drive, Clicked on an Album, Clicked on a Photo and then tried to use the browser back button. Instead of going back to the previous screen, I get a pop-up box that says "Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page? Doing so will end your Photoshop.com session..."

What?

Are you saying, that within photoshop.com, I cannot use my browsers back button to navigate. Nor for that matter can I use my browsers forward button, history, tabs, windows, nor can I even bookmark a page to come back to. I cannot send friends a URL to my photo via email, nor post a link on Facebook.

The entire photoshop.com photo sharing application is written in Flash. And although flash is great for pretty animation, it is lacking when it comes to browser accessibility. Most of the time, Flash is stateless, meaning the browser doesn't know when you click something inside flash to go to another "page." Therefore, you cannot use your browser to navigate to a previous screen within flash, or even bookmark the current screen you are on.

The major downside to this is that it makes the site less usability and less accessible. Not just for users who use keyboards or other alternative devices to navigate the web, but for all of us who use keyboard shortcuts for browsing, mobile devices, or browser that do not support or have the Flash player installed.

In opposition to photoshop.com is Flickr.com, a photo sharing web site application with all the features of photoshop.com, plus more. And Flickr doesn't require a flash plug-in. It will run on virtually any web browsing appliance. It doesn't break your browser's functionality. It has advanced features for Ajax-based content delivery and updating...just like Flash. And if your browser doesn't support those features, then it rolls back to the traditional web forms with a submit button.

So if you had the choice between a web application with fewer features that only runs on a proprietary plug-in within a browser whose functionality is stripped ...OR... A web application with more features that runs and works on any browser. Which would you choose?

It's sad that Adobe is moving most of their web applications into Flash. What they might be gaining in proprietary functionality, they are losing in the areas of accessibility, usability, openness, sharing, interconnectivity, and more.