With Flash, usually there’s too many things to go wrong, meaning that there is potential to lose valuable visitors to the website. Slow internet connections, Flash browser plugins, old browser compatibility, a lack of search engine optimisation, and general end-user inexperience, are all factors which render Flash not much more than novelty item when it comes to website design for the masses.

Every now and again I come across a site purely built in Flash, that is worth the risking the potential usability issues mentioned above.   Coca Cola’s recent Flash-based campaign mini-site titled Coke Light – World’s Flavours is one of those Flash websites that is an absolute pleasure to interact with.  

Even from the outset, the Flash loading animation is far more captivating that your average Flash-used-for the-sake-of-using-Flash-website.   Once loaded (and unfortunately it can take a little while on slow connections), the vibrant design of this Flash-based user interface manages to balance user intrigue, with website usability.  

Check out it out. Coke Light – World’s Flavours

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HEMA is actually the first Dutch department store that was opened in Amsterdam. The flagship store opened on November 4, 1926, and now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands.

Despite the age of Hema, from a business point of view, it appears that they have persisted in keeping their image ‘fresh’, to continue to appeal to the masses and demand attention as a modern and innovative online store (not to mention their retail stores).

You may be wondering how a simple online store can be innovative, or even interesting. Most usability experts will argue that deviating from the tried and tested standard e-commerce website architecture (which the likes of Amazon.com have set the benchmark for) is a waste of time. You will simply lose customers during the sales process, as they will become confused, disengaged, and most probably leave your website without purchasing a single thing.

I think now is an appropriate time for you to visit the Hema site. Once you have clicked this link, sit back and take a few moments to of quiet delight as you watch the ensuing show that will soon unfold before your eyes.

The Flash site design of Hema is certainly not revolutionary, most of you have probably already seen these Flash overlay pages before (whereby an existing website appears to be ‘defaced’ or ‘vandalised’ as your computer seems to ‘come to life’ and take over your screen).

However, by doing this, Hema has created a Flash ‘splash’ page which almost makes their own website a viral campaign in itself. To me, that sounds like the most successful viral campaign ever – driving traffic DIRECTLY to where you want them (as opposed to most other viral campaigns, which drive traffic to a landing page or alternative site, before attempting to redirect this web traffic to the primary website after their interest has been heightened).

If you own a lacklustre online site, perhaps you could look at leveraging of this concept to make your website a little more eye-catching and ‘sticky’ . Or perhaps you have seen some even better instances of this type of viral marketing?

Either way, I’d love to hear your comments.

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Let’s take a step back and think about this concept. Let’s imagine a game from an era gone by that everyone on the planet knows (yes, a ‘real’ game that didn’t involve CPUs and bashing a keypad), let’s say ……um, Domino’s! …… and turn it into an interactive Flash application. An application with no real purpose, but to elicit a smile and a flashback to playing the real dominos at grandma’s house many moons ago.

Drawminos is simple. It’s a set of virtual dominos built in Flash that you can set up in any formation, with a few clicks of the mouse (a lot easier and a lot less frustrating than the steady handy and stable surface required by a real set of dominos – not to mention the evil older sister who could possibly come in at just the wrong time and knock the entire set over that you had spent the last 45 minutes painstakingly laying out!). Once you’ve created a formation you a happy with, click the “Play” button and watch your formation topple. And magically you can reset the formation and make it topple over and over again (if only you could have done that that with the big sister incident). You can even save and send your proudest creations to your friends.

Here’s a demo I very quickly created, to give you the idea. Why don’t you have a shot at creating a Drawmino chain right now – and post a link to your best effort in the Comments section of Bread Milk Digital. Enjoy!

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Super Obama World - how can you resist playing just one level?

Super Obama World seems to have been developed just as a gimmick by a bored Flash programmer who has a few spare hours in between freelance jobs.  But this simple concept instantly brings a smile to your dial.

Why?

Because who doesn’t want an excuse to play a quick level of Super Mario Bros, right? And seeing Obama’s name replace Mario’s in that classic old-school Super Mario Brothers font, is just plain cool….

…so cool it makes me want to buy one of these t-shirts, even though I’ve no interest in US politics whatsoever.

Super Obama World t-shirt. The only political tee I may ever consider wearing.

Anyone out there who is looking for viral marketing ideas and has writers block…take a few notes from the above.  Adapt a retro classic to something of immediate relevance, and (o)BAM(a), you’ll be getting more votes of praise than the latest US president!

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For any animators out there, I dare you to try and outdo this….and if you believe you (or someone you know) have outdone this glorious display of where interactive animation is heading, post your evidence in the Comments section of this post.

Have a play at Man in the dark.com…you’ll be hard pressed closing the window and getting back to work once the animation has loaded, as it’s quite addictive trying to morph this virtual man into all sorts of interesting positions!

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