Comments on: MTV.com: All-Flash Done Right

By: RB

RB — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:19:21 +0000

I didn’t say it wasnt, I just said thats what they use the hash for and that neave.tv was a good example of it.

If Im going to be pedentic about it, it’s actually not done with swf object, swf object is embedding JS script, using that just makes it easier to implement flash vars, and that is how you communinicate external information into flash via the url, which is what deeplinking basically is!

By: lincoln

lincoln — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:08:28 +0000

RB, deeplinking in flash is done with a combo of SWFobject and SWFaddress. Its dead simple to use and works cross browser. Deeplinking shouldn’t be a fight in flash and now it isn’t.

By: RB

RB — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:46:34 +0000

Using a # (anchor tag) is a cheap way to deeplink flash and stop the page refreshing when you call a URL via the browser, not sure how they did it on this page as the code is a mess, but if you look at neave tv and the JS and html source (http://www.neave.tv/) you will see a really good example of the technique in action.

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 16:24:51 +0000

I was wondering the same thing, but am not versed enough in Flash to understand the significance of it.

By: treevis

treevis — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 15:48:48 +0000

@kyle (warpspire): Does anyone know why the “#” is added for the URLs in the Flash but they’re not there in the non-Flash? Both are created from the same XHTML base.

By: Rimantas

Rimantas — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 11:50:28 +0000

I can’t wait for “Java applet site done right” and “jpeg site done right”.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:24:40 +0000

I’d have to agree with Kyle. The MTV site look to me like their just doing that was done in the 90s. However, they do deserve some kudos for having the video and XHTML versions.

I disagree with the assessment of 2advanced however. The sci-fi space fantasy is played out. These folks are talented flash developers for sure, so hopefully they’ll try something totally different in their next iteration.

I found the FWA’s site of the day for today (12/16) to be an absolutely incredible example of Flash done right — and appropriate to their message.

Check it out — whatnoise.org

By: zak

zak — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 15:05:47 +0000

I like the site and checked it out when it first changed but had one gripe… i live in the uk and the first 2 vids i wanted to watch gave me a horrible cruel message “content not available outside the US” …. so i left and found it on youtube. Not a design cause i know but it still annoys me!

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:41:34 +0000

MTV’s newer look is horrendous. It reminds me of the days in the 90′s when everyone had 50 animated gifs on their pages. Too much animation and transitions, it’s almost like being staring into a strobe light, and then they crammed so much detail and content into such a small area it’s hard to even figure out where to begin.

One upside I will give them is the search emphasis which is great. Search is king these days, so props to them for getting that right.

Overall though, MTV.com gets an F for this rendition. No different from any other design I have seen them produce.

Sites like http://www.2advanced.com is a great flash done right site. So are many of the sites that they have produced for clients. They manage to put together the right amounts of eye candy and content to make the site look sweet, and still provide content in good ways.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:05:57 +0000

Scrivs: You actually can have permalinks in Flash, and I’m glad to see that MTV has already done this (A++ to their development team). For isntance check this out: http://www.mtv.com/#/music/best_of/2006/ It’s a “hack” of a permalink, but gets the job done. Same thing can be said for Ajax (though hardly of Ajax developers).

Personally, this is one the things that most impressed me about the design: they took the time to finish off details like this before going live (instead of afterword, like most dev shops)