A lot of times inexperienced programmers see gee whiz functionality and try to add that functionality to their own code, regardless of whether or not the code actually needs it.  I've seen a lot of instances lately where this is the case. 

Today, I needed to find a number to call to have Dish Network switch my service to my new place (I just moved).  I brought up their website and clicked on the "Contact Us" link.  So far, so good.

http://www.dishtv.com/contact_us.jsp

A little ways down the page there's a flash applet that allows you to click two buttons.  One labeled "Existing Customers" and the other "New Customers".  You click the appropriate button and a fantastic super sweet animation plays that gives you the number.  If you somehow made a mistake you can click the other button and that number will appear.

I'm imagining what went on in the designer's mind when mapping out this page.  They thought flash was cool, and wanted to spice up the "What is the number I want to call?" process.

Here's what's going on in my mind.  Why did you use flash why not just straight HTML?  Then I compare and contrast each real quick.  How easy is it to update the numbers?  What happens if the user doesn't have the flash plugin installed?  What if they don't want to install it?  Why isn't a default number shown?  The rest of the site clearly uses HyperLinks which have been established for quite sometime now, what happens if the user doesn't know where to click, or even know those are buttons?

I clearly would have chosen to implement this page in plain jane boring ass HTML.  I would have made two headers, "Existing Customers" and "New Customers" and given the information below it.  If I need to update the number I wouldn't need to open a FLA file to compile out to SWF, I'd change the text in the HTML (or better yet, config file for global update) and upload the change.

There wouldn't be any confusion.  The user wouldn't have to click a button.  The user wouldn't have to download the flash plugin if it wasn't on their computer.  Developers and designers need to ask themselves sometimes, "Why is the user at this page?"  I just want to find the number to call, I don't really care how it is presented as long as I get it as fast as possible.  True, there wouldn't be that great animation that really makes me want to stick with Dish Network for the rest of my life but...you gotta ask yourself, why?