SIGIA-L Mail Archives: SIGIA-L: Flash as a superior ui technolo
SIGIA-L: Flash as a superior ui technology
From: Erik Larson (elarson_at_macromedia.com)
Date: Thu Feb 15 2001 - 21:49:12 EST
Hello,
I like to chime in every once in a while to clear up some of the smoke
surrounding Flash ;-). First, it is important to note that Macromedia
releases a new version of the Flash player (a browser plug-in) roughly in
synch with new versions of the authoring environment. We released the Flash
5 player last year.
With that in mind, a couple facts about Flash players: over 95% of all
browsers have at least the Flash 3 player installed, a higher penetration by
far than any other media standard (higher even than javascript) or browser
type, with the exception of gifs and jpegs. Almost 85% of browsers have at
least the Flash 4 player installed. And HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of Flash 5
players are successfully downloaded or installed every quarter. If you want
to see the stats from NPD, an independent research firm, check out:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer/
Second, while Flash has significant accessibility and searchability problems
(which Macromedia is working on diligently), in my opinion IN THE RIGHT
HANDS it is a vastly superior and more usable application interface than
html for many reasons, including superior cross-browser form creation,
direct XML communications, and strong client side scripting. For example,
has anyone ever tried building a sortable datasheet-type form with editable
and calculated cells in html that works equally well in Netscape X.X for the
Mac and IE X.X for Windows? How about one that also looks professional,
downloads and posts quickly, and allows in-browser scaling? I haven't yet
seen one on the web, though I expect we will soon...done in Flash.
My current favorite usable Flash site/application is:
http://www.dream-nation.com/login.htm
Log-in as a guest (no personal info exchange necessary) and see what you
think. In particular, click on the news stories (all dynamically served
from a database to Flash) and check out the Flash-driven message boards.
The site downloads faster than an equivalent HTML site, and in my opinion is
more usable than most as well. NOTE: I think you will need the Flash 5
player, if you don't have it already.
I know that many usability folks have strong emotional reactions against
Flash based on history. That's to be expected, at least in part since it's
not that easy to learn how to use it properly (something else Macromedia is
working on). Critiquing the many ways that inexperienced designers have
spray-painted the web with Flash is interesting sport, but ultimately
information architects are responsible for advancing the state of the online
user experience using the appropriate technologies for the job. I imagine
that many of the folks on this list who don't understand how Flash can be
used to build better application interfaces would be surprised if they spent
some time learning about its less glitzy and more useful capabilities. I
certainly was.
Cheers!
-Erik
Erik Larson
Product Manager
Macromedia
--------------------------------------------------------------
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