[IxDA Discuss] "Acceptable" download/performance time on flash sites?

[Will Evans]

" I'm currently working on a flash-heavy 'experiential' site, where the
flash
is mostly concentrated in areas of light information and entertainment
rather than utility/functional sections."


One thing I would caution against - and I have heard/seen this over and over
to the point of annoyance, is the assumption that flash=experiential, or
more specifically, visual flash designers and marketing/advertising agencies
that do flash-heavy sites equating flash UI with a "rich user experience."
The two are not equal. The two are not synonymous. Animated transitions,
variable opacity and sliding text blocks does not a rich user experience
make. A rich user experience is the holistic totality of the user
interaction with the system/website/product or service. It is the music in
starbucks, the waiting time in an emergency room (not just the competence of
the doctor), it is getting a customer service person on the phone without 15
selections ("press 1 for English, press 4 to not be annoyed, press 6 to give
up").

Why do I seemingly state the obvious - because by saying that flash
interfaces are rich user experiences, it unknowingly argues that ajax/xhtml,
javascript dom are not, and further - when I read "experiential" as
describing an interface - my immediate thought is that the site is "fluff"
-- no content, no usefulness, no meat. Flash and html are simply the medium
- though this medium does carry a message. Choosing the medium matters, but
should not at the expense of the message. (Sorry Marshall!).


But to the point - I think about the beautiful, artistic site done for VW UK
(http://www.vw.co.uk), which has transitions, faceted navigation, some
clearly thought out information architecture. Really well done - but for one
flaw - every page transition requires a 10-15 second "loading" dialog -- and
the content behind it doesn't justify the time waiting. Especially since
absolutely no aspect of the UI couldn't be done with xhtml/ajax without the
loading - without the wait. The totality of the experience matters - and
loading dialogs - as much as 10-15, sometimes 20 seconds between "pages"
significantly decreases the enjoyment of the experience. So when choosing a
front end platform - ask specifically what is the cost to the user, and what
is the benefit. In the VW site - there is zero benefit to having gone with
flash (from a users perspective) -- and a hole car-load of cost.


-- 
~ will

"Where you innovate, how you innovate,
and what you innovate are design problems"

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Will Evans | User Experience Architect
tel +1.617.281.1281 || wkevans4 at gmail.com
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