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Where are Flash and broadband going?
"Flash and broadband have a bright future together. Flash
is evolving as broadband becomes more prevalent. As broadband
becomes widespread, Internet media services will deliver
richer media, and areas that will benefit from this fatter
pipe will be entertainment sites. Imagine in the future
that, instead of going to a store to rent a video, you will
simply enter your credit card at a web site and begin to
watch the movie of your choice on your "media appliance."
Microsoft is already developing a media box that will enable
users to watch movies, play games, and control household
appliances from one unit. Flash will play a vital role in
the delivery of broadband entertainment, news, and information.
If Flash continues to develop on its current path, it will
become the essential ingredient that helps the browser glue
many different types of rich content together. Video, 3-D
objects, and other types of media can be displayed using
rich interfaces created in Flash.
"Flash in broadband also has benefits for the advertising
industry. Animated banner ads are becoming ineffective.
Studies show users ignore them, and the click-through rate
is sometimes so low companies can barely justify spending
already tight advertising dollars on such things. Banner
ads are simply too boring. Consumers expect exciting commercials
with music and interesting effects. Because of the use of
special effects and good sound production, television commercials
can be minimovies, which are more effective at holding the
consumer's attention. Using Flash and broadband, advertising
agencies will again be able to start building minimovies
that will engage users and won't be as boring or static
as animated GIF banner ads.
"Imagine an Internet where bandwidth is no longer an issue,
and where the lines separating static web pages, television,
and interactive applications blur. The idea of a page or
a static piece of information has been totally changed because
of Flash's layering capability. Content can now be displayed
in pieces or mixed together to form new content by the end
user. The booklike model of "turning" a page to read more
information has been surpassed. Using Flash, developers
can layer information and design in a way that wasn't possible
with traditional HTML.
"In the future, as bandwidth becomes less of an issue,
we will see the Internet and television marry. The child
of these two technologies will be a hyperactive, hyperreal
feast for the senses. This is the inevitable course for
two forms of media that need each other. Internet content,
even with the current iteration of Flash, still lacks the
rich media of television. And television, with all its rich
visuals and sounds, is rather stupid compared to its smarter
friend, the Internet. This new media type will be a sensory-energizing
environment. It could possibly be a virtual reality environment,
much like sci-fi movies such as Lawnmower Man or
the classic Tron. Regardless of what technology is
used to display this new media, it will definitely combine
the interactivity of Flash and the robust media of television.
This is the logical evolution of the two forms of media.
Where is Flash usability going?
"As the complexity of interactive media grows, developers
must be more familiar with how to create usable Flash sites.
Web sites are quickly becoming an important extension of
an organization's digital storefront. A variety of organizations—from
Fortune 500 companies to international charities—are
now using web sites to do business and relate to their clients.
This digital storefront is often more than a secondary means
to interface with a brick-and-mortar company; it can even
be the only interface. Software companies, such as Macromedia,
are now offering electronic purchase of their products.
Consumers can now purchase copies of the software that don't
include any physical shipment. This makes designing a highly
usable interface even more important because clients are
only interacting with the digital storefront. A poorly designed
site can lead directly to lower sales. Flash is being used
more and more as an interface for users to experience a
product online. For example, users can rotate objects and
zoom in on cloths to see the fabric texture. This heightened
level of sensory experience with products enables e-tailers
to showcase products that often didn't sell well online
before.
"How the public interacts with these Flash modules is
critical to the success of the site. A hard-to-use interface
could frustrate users, sending them away without making
a purchase. Flash developers might be held accountable for
the lack of usability of a Flash site. Any damages caused
because of poor usability and reduced profits could cause
legal problems for the Flash developer. When it comes to
developing usable content for mission-critical applications,
Flash developers would be wise to ensure usability is the
number one focus of their efforts.
Flash usability and the multifaceted team
"In the past few years, Flash has grown from a tool primarily
used by web designers to a tool used by a multifaceted team
of individuals. Flash's robust animation capabilities have
drawn users from the animation world, such as cartoonists
and 3-D animators. Hard-core programmers have also adopted
Flash as an alternative to clunky Java applets that display
weather and other data. University professors are using
Flash as a cost-effective way to deliver teaching materials
both over the Web and in a classroom presentation. Often
on large projects, many different types of people are involved
in the production of Flash content. With so many different
skill sets involved, it becomes even more important to address
usability.
"As our online systems become more complex, it will be
critical for companies to hire specialists who can coordinate
how information is displayed and used. Many larger companies
hire information architects and usability specialists, but
smaller companies are still trying to "wing it" by having
their graphic designer or project manager attempt to address
usability issues in project planning and development. These
types of sites are becoming easier and easier to spot when
they're compared to sites that had the benefit of usability
analysis and development. Many information architects are
coming from the fields of library and information science,
and the schools teaching these disciplines are slowly changing
the curriculum to keep pace with the changing technology.
As more classes of students graduate with this specialized
knowledge, the Flash community will change because developers
have more contact with usability and information design
specialists.
Flash is more than animation or a page
"Flash can no longer be defined as a tool for creating animation
and interactivity because it no longer is a simple object
that displays on a page. Flash has evolved through many
creative uses into all these things at once. Flash can display
linear and nonlinear objects in the same space. Because
of Flash's unique capability to change form so quickly,
many Flash developers have created usability problems due
to their lack of experience with such media. Many developers
come from a graphic design background, and others have roots
in animation and video editing. Flash presents many challenges
to usability that neither group has ever encountered. How
do these developers deal with a media type that can easily
morph from one state (a static page) to the other (animation)?
As Flash becomes more widely used, developers from other
fields will need to rely on the expertise of usability experts
to help guide their projects."
In the "Flash Unusable Gallery," the authors present
a series of common interfaces built with Macromedia Flash
whose navigation styles aren't easy to use. In each instance,
they point out the problems with the navigation style and
suggest ways to improve it, while maintaining the original
design style.
Problem 1: Hidden navigation
"In this example (see Figure 8-1) we have the classic hidden
navigation Flash menu. Many Flash designers use this type
of design because it leaves the page clean looking and uncluttered.
Unfortunately, it makes the site hard to use because users
are forced to move their cursors over objects to understand
what they link to. In this case, the buttons are small gray
circles. This makes the problem even worse because the gray
circles don't appear to look like buttons. Understanding
that many users need things to be simple and easy to use
is important. Common sense should play a role in the way
you develop usable content. Try to make buttons look clickable.
The second issue with this site is that all browser navigation
has been removed. The Back button is the most frequently
used part of the browser. Pop-up window Flash sites should
be avoided." |
