Flash sites: not always bad

You hear it all the time. Flash sites are evil. Flash is evil. Nielsen says that Flash is 99% bad.

But is it really? Is it always? I think there are some really good uses for flash, even for full sites. I’ve seen a lot of really cool band sites lately delivered in flash. This is an appropriate medium in this case because the site needs to provide more than just information. They need an experience.

Some examples:

• The Subways (I love the look of the navigation but I’ll admit that it’s a little hard to use. A text alternative would be helpful)
• Big City Rock (good combo of flash navigation & HTML. Those buttons are super cute)
• The Invention – this one was posted for review at TWF. We got a bit of flack for being too positive with the reviews!
• The Guillemots – really cool Dr. Seuss-ish illustration. Very mystery meat though, and can be hard navigate. Fun to explore though.

My one big gripe? Tiny text that isn’t resizeable. If you’re going to make a flash site, be extra sure that the font size is big enough to read comforably, even if it means compromising your design vision. Oh, and don’t make the music play automatically!

Any other examples of great flash sites?

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