Some time ago I wrote about how inappropriate it was to build an entire website in Flash, which was triggered by a bad experience with Fopp’s site. Now Matt of Fopp has dropped a note to say they had problems with it, too:

Flash is not great if you want to do a usable retail website. Screws with the speed as well. Hence why we went for an Open Source, simple e-commerce engine when redesigning the Fopp website internally. This enabled us to avoid the path many design agencies take you down with over-engineered snazzy websites that are not functional or customer friendly.

He notes that they’ve just relaunched with a non-Flash version. And… it works! Let’s review those Flash drawbacks again:

• Back button. Can now be used.
• Bookmarking pages. Now possible.
• Search engines. Google’s already successfully indexed Fopp (though they might want to ensure the page titles are more meaningful).
• Accessibility. Couldn’t really comment, but it’s clearly at least usable now.
• Familiar user interface (Simon Wakeham’s comment). It feels comfortably like an e-commerce site.
• Printing. I’ve just successfully printed off a map to the Shaftesbury Avenue shop. Couldn’t do that before.
• Speed (Matt’s point). I think Matt’s saying that each time someone visits a Flash site they effectively have to download the entire application/site each time. That’s no good for anyone. Well, now the site loads page by page, which makes for a better experience all round.

All in all, a good piece of work. Thumbs up, Foppers.

Tags: websites, fopp, accessibility, design, flash