Plain and simple. The problem here is that even seriously interesting design can interfere with usability. Innovation, whether aesthetic or technical, can disrupt user interactivity, design purpose, or commerce objectives. But the problem is that form can subvert function, notably when design involves innovation or requires the user to adapt to a new set of usability rules or a new kind of interface. And when form distorts function, then the medium does not become the message - it obscures it.
Some Web designers push the medium.
Others scorn the flashy stuff. We asked five leading designers where they stand in this budding religious war. Those of us who grew up building CD-Roms knew that highly complicated highly animated interfaces didn't work. The latest crop of designers have not had that training and when the brief says innovative, they use flash and create something which is just unuseable. The problem occurs when non-professionals apply these guidelines out of context.