Does “Interactive” Mean Flash?

As always, I’m mildly excited then completely disappointed by the Interactive Annual of Communication Arts magazine. This judgment is strictly centered on the winning entries they’ve chosen however, and not on the articles. The articles are always great.

Each Interactive Annual never fails in catering to the big corporate flash website(s). I’d like to see more standards-based accessible projects featured in the annual, and I know that I’m not alone in that desire. Looking over the winning entries, we’re guided to believe that cutting edge interactive communication is almost always flash-driven, …and that’s an arrogant notion, one disconnected from reality.

Additional Reading:

• State-of-the-art interactivity? – Jeff Veen
• Another Pathetic Interactive Annual from Communication Arts
• Communication Arts Interactive Annual more like “Flash” Annual

But then again, the articles. Yes the articles. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from this issue:

“My god, if I see just one more person walk up and talk straight to the camera and say, ‘Thanks so much for coming to this web site…” Naughton said. “Be a little more creative please.”

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The latest buzz words coming out of clients’ mouths sent more than one pair of eyes rolling towards the ceiling during my interviews. “It’s always ‘I want a viral video, ‘ followed by ‘and I want a social network,’ Anderson said. “Our role is to come back to clients with a communication strategy that makes sense for what they’ve asked us to solve. That may or may not include a social network. ‘We’re not going to build you a social network because we don’t think it’s anything people will socialize about’.”

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“I saw a lot of sites that took a long time to load,” said Elizabeth Casto, best-selling Web design author at Cookwood Press, in Ashfield Massachusetts. ” Then, once they loaded, they’re peripheral to what they’re talking about. They’re games. It seems they’re throwing anything at you to see if you’ll stay for two more seconds. I don’t want to play games. The sites that drew my attention were beautiful, but also told me something.”

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It used to be that the online was supporting offline, “Naughton said. “now offline is supporting online; and yes, clients are asking for it.”"The web has become the center point of most campaigns because it’s a place to really emotionally connect with consumers,” Zada added. “Telling a story in 30 seconds is going away. TV is still an important medium to get your message to everybody, but when you start to think about 18-20 minutes of engagement, that’s what the web is really good for.”