I just tried to visit the Coast Hotels & Resorts website and was greeted by this:
I have to be honest: I have had a bias against Flash since I first learned about it in the mid-1990s. It has lots of problems, chief among it that audio-browsers and other diverse clients can not interact with Flash. That said, I have been slowly coming around in the last year to appreciate some of the new user interface possibilites that it affords web applications.
I have gotten used to (though never too happy about) clicking the "skip intro" button that most web designers include in the all-too-often gratuitous Flash animations that grace many sites today. But this is a complete afront: a site that dares to insult its audience by saying, in effect: "we are so cool that we can demand you upgrade your software before we'll even open the door to our lobby." There is no low-res option! Unbelievable. Even the W3 admits it doesn't make any business sense to exclude visitors.
I have been cautiously optimistic about Coast Hotels & Resorts, a Canadian hospitality concern that just recently made its first foray in the USA with some re-flagging of trophy properties in Portland, Seattle and other markets. But this -- I must confess -- has now caused me to lose a lot of my trust in this organization. Let me in the door, let's chat, and then maybe I'll see a reason to upgrade to "learn more" about Coast. But DO NOT deny someone who is otherwise in your target audience of the opportunity to learn anything about your organization simply because I am visiting from my corporate PC (which has a standard software configuration). If anyone at Coast happens to check their referrer logs and find this commentary, I welcome your feedback. My recommendation to you is simple: made your home page universally accessible. Save the high zoot stuff for inside. Deal?
