1 Additional Topics: Splash, Flash and Web Usability INFO 654 – Spring 2007

2 Sources and Credits for this Material Used examples from Son of Web Pages That Suck (2002) by Vincent Flanders

3 Objectives In this session, we will address: A little more on splash pages (as a prelude to Flash) What is Flash? Good and bad usability features

4 Splash Pages and Usability They can look great and help convey image and style, but they sometimes violate a cardinal rule of usable web design: 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.

5 Vincent Flanders: Parody of Really Bad Splash 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.

6 Splash Pages and Accountability Logically, music and art sites are perfect places to use splash pages: There’s no way to judge whether this site affected traffic to the movie.

7 Good Splash Pages To screen initial viewers

8 Not Everyone Agrees “But we’re trying to establish a brand, and our splash page is our branding mechanism.”

9 Cut Your Losses with Splash Pages Make Splash file under 40KB in size, if possible. Include descriptive text Use descriptive tag Use descriptive text and keywords in tags.

10 Macromedia Flash 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.

11 Flash – What It Is Original Macromedia description: “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.”

12 Vector-based Web Authoring Mathematical concept of vectors serves as a basis for computer graphics. Vector is a formula that describes a path: 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.

13 Why Flash is Bad 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

14 Why Flash is Good 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

15 Flash and Usability: Bad html html hp/ hp/

16 Equal Time: Flash and Usability: Good Or bad?: Good?: Good ( but touted on Macromedia’s own site ): HTML-based ‘configurator’ versus Flash-based ‘visualizer’.

17 Equal Time: Flash and Usability: Good Also touted on Macromedia’s site:

18 Flash Works Best For... Animations, cartoons, and games Visual explanations, like how to put together a cabinet or how a revolutionary new product works Sites that involve user interaction along with animation Forms for users to fill out Situations where there is no accountability for how well or poorly the site performs

19 Types of Sites Made for Flash Band Fashion Multimedia Movie Web Design Firms Brochureware sites – sites that are created to look pretty but not to sell anything.