Transcript Splash and Flash

Additional Topics:
Splash, Flash and Web Usability
INFO 654 – Spring 2007
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Sources and Credits for this Material
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Used examples from Son of Web Pages
That Suck (2002) by Vincent Flanders
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Objectives
In this session, we will address:
 A little more on splash pages (as a
prelude to Flash)
 What is Flash?
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Good and bad usability features
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Splash Pages and Usability
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They can look great and help convey
image and style, but they sometimes
violate a cardinal rule of usable web
design:
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Don’t do anything that gets in the
way of the user.
Splash pages sometimes get in the way
because they are an extra layer
between your visitor and your site.
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Vincent Flanders:
Parody of Really Bad Splash
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http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/wpts1/
Shows many bad design elements
Too many people thought he was serious in
that this splash page was Flanders’ idea of
what a well-designed page should look like.
For a good laugh, try the “Click Here”
animation.
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Splash Pages and Accountability
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Logically, music and art sites are perfect
places to use splash pages:
http://www.scarymovie.com
There’s no way to judge whether this site
affected traffic to the movie.
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Good Splash Pages
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To screen initial viewers
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http://www.europa.eu.int
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Not Everyone Agrees
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“But we’re trying to establish a brand, and
our splash page is our branding
mechanism.”
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Cut Your Losses with Splash Pages
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Make Splash file under 40KB in size, if possible.
Include descriptive text
Use descriptive <TITLE> tag
Use descriptive text and keywords in <META>
tags.
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Macromedia Flash
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When Flash animations play, many Web
surfers never notice that their browser is
actually loading a foreign application.
The Flash plug-in allows browsers to run
Flash programs that range from the
sublime to the ridiculous.
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Flash – What It Is
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Original Macromedia description:
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“Macromedia Flash is the key to designing and
delivering low-bandwidth animations, presentations, and
Web sites. It offers scripting capabilities and server-side
connectivity for creating engaging applications, Web
interfaces, and training courses. Once you’ve created
your content, 98.3% of the online audience will be able
to view it with the Macromedia Flash Player.”
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/
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Vector-based Web Authoring
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Mathematical concept of vectors serves as a basis
for computer graphics. Vector is a formula that
describes a path:
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Start at a given point, and proceed in a specified direction
for a specified distance.
Any computer image to display or print can be built from
these path instructions.
Advantages: permits smaller file size, faster download,
and image scalability without loss of quality
Raster-based (bitmapped) image formats, such as
GIF and JPEG, contain information about individual
pixels.
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Why Flash is Bad
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Search engines can’t index flash-based content
Bandwidth – Flash files can be huge
Many corporate intranets and military groups
won’t give their users access to Flash
Playback speed varies
Flash is an invitation to use Mystery Meat
Navigation
Accessibility concerns and others
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Why Flash is Good
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What you see on the screen is pretty much what
you get
Solves positioning problems
Flash player is included with newer browsers
Vector graphics are easier and faster to work with
than bitmaps
Web-based resources
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http://www.swishzone.com
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Flash and Usability: Bad
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http://www.dack.com/web/flashVhtml/
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-2005772284.html
http://www.webword.com/flashusability.html
http://www.clickz.com/tech/lead_edge/article.p
hp/838701
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html
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Equal Time:
Flash and Usability: Good
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Or bad?:
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Good?:
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http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/main.html
http://webmasterbase.com/article/374
Good (but touted on Macromedia’s own site):
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http://www.vw.com HTML-based ‘configurator’
versus http://www.vwasia.com Flash-based
‘visualizer’.
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Equal Time:
Flash and Usability: Good
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Also touted on Macromedia’s site:
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http://www.onemanseye.com
http://TheyRule.net
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Flash Works Best For . . .
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Animations, cartoons, and games
Visual explanations, like how to put together a
cabinet or how a revolutionary new product works
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Sites that involve user interaction along with
animation
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http://www.segway.com
Forms for users to fill out
Situations where there is no accountability for
how well or poorly the site performs
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Types of Sites Made for Flash
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Band
Fashion
Multimedia
Movie
Web Design Firms
Brochureware sites – sites that are
created to look pretty but not to sell
anything.
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