How To Use Flash To Ruin The User Experience

I believe in the goodness of the human heart. So I'll go out on a limb and say icebox.com truly wants to make a website that's cool, interactive and profitable. They probably don't hate you, personally.

But their love for Flash has blinded them. Instead of offering reasons why you should download Flash ("View our exciting content!"), they automatically assume you'll do it because they said you should, no questions asked.

"But, wait," you say. "Macromedia claims there are hundreds of millions of Flash users! They claim the Flash player is installed in 92% of browsers worldwide! If most people will pass into icebox.com without a problem, why should icebox care about that paltry 8%?"

Let's set aside the statistics (not that we doubt you, Macromedia!) and think of icebox.com as a person.

A person who puts on a great show when the whole world is watching, who gives to various charities, and tutors underprivileged children, and volunteers at the SPCA — then goes home and kicks his dog in private.

I doubt the staff at icebox.com publicly endorses cruelty to animals. (Of course, I cannot prove that supposition since I can't access their site without the Flash plugin.) But their private disdain for non-Flash users is glaringly apparent, and appalling. If they really cared about you, and their business, they'd do a better job of issuing users into their site and involving them with the site's content.

Unfortunately, icebox.com isn't the only site whose use of Flash leaves me cold.

NEXT TIME: More Flash horror stores

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