I know it seems as if I have Windows Home Server on the brain, but in fact it just seems to be hitting me in the face ever since I received my Beta 2 kit the other day in the mail. I just stumbled upon stopdigitalamnesia.com, and this is another great example of a superb Flash micro-site, with very specific targeting.
The site is extremely well developed, and the content is delivered in a thoughtful and approachable fashion – leading right into the trend of Windows Home Server; to have an extremely well developed and powerful Home Server, while leaving all of the Sys Admin crap out. The site has the target audience squarely in its sights, and hits the mark with the accuracy of a Marine Corps Sniper. It reminds me quite a bit of the origamiproject.com site which was released months ago now. While technically the two sites content and function is similar only by the owner, what they have in common in esthetics and overall marketing trends is undeniable.
Flash micro-sites build steam and take hold
Microsoft, and many other companies are jumping on the Flash band wagon and taking hold of what that platform was really meant to accomplish – engage the user. Seems pretty simple right? Not so. How many Flash sites have you seen where they were overly complex, displayed far too much information and were crammed full of extra garbage that really had no bearing on the core principles of the site? Too many to count I wager. These two, do exactly the opposite. And they are right smack-dab in the middle of an emerging trend in Flash development. Companies are starting to turn away from the encapsulated, comprehensive Flash site in lieu of smaller, in some cases hybrid sites, that convey very succinct messages, rather than broad over-arching, all inclusive themes. Look at Nike, they are the masters of this. How many sub or micro sites do they have now? 22 on their menu, probably more. Their sites are fast, very explicit with the information they provide, and divided into easily understandable sections. Another great example is Nautica and Nautica Jeans Co.
Sites like these are pure examples of why Flash is a great platform for developing RIAs, and will continue to be the leading interactive tool for years to come. The people who still claim that Flash is evil and 99% bad are flat out wrong – voicing outdated rhetoric to simply increase bandwidth and traffic to their sites.