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O.S. to - Usability and Flash

Q. How many usability experts does it take to change a lightbulb? A. That'll be $20,000.

MARCH 2001, by John Dalziel Ahem.Flash took a bit of a beating towards the end of last year. Chris MacGregor at Flazoom called it a 'cancer on the web'. Dack Ragus called it 'evil' and our old friend Jakob Nielsen did some user testing and announced that it was '99% Bad'.

It was this last announcement and the knee-jerk reaction from the design community that promoted Mr Nielsen up to Flash public enemy number one.

Co-incidentally the ensuing uproar provided him (and his upcoming Neilsen/Norman Group world tour) with a raft of free publicity. In recent months though the usability dream team has begun to back-pedal a little. Don Norman has since claimed the group is 'not opposed to Flash' and Neilsen has shifted the blame on to Macromedia for launching a tool that 'encourages bad design'.

In an effort to combat some of the bad press Macromedia launched their usability initiative. Although initial reactions were mixed it has helped to put usability issues at the forefront of Flash designers' minds.

The problem as the usability experts see it is not the tool itself, but the abuse of the tool. To use a Lego analogy, it breaks down a bit like this:

HTML is the digital equivalent of Lego:
You have a finite number of building blocks with which to build your page. The usability mindset likes this because the building blocks are familiar to the user and familiarity is a good thing.

DHTML is more like Lego Mindstorms:
You still have a finite number of building blocks but now you can tell
them what to do.

Flash is like having your very own Lego factory.

It is a powerful tool and powerful tools are open to abuse. Giving people the power to make their own interfaces is the usability equivalent of giving handguns to small children. Most of the time the results are ill thought out and not very pretty.

From the designers point of view Flash is the tool that has liberated them from the common user interface. It's freeform nature rewards experimentation, or depending upon your point of view encourages 'bad design'.

It's important to remember that 'Usability' is a largely commercial concern. I don't think any designer disputes the business sense of providing customers with a helpful environment made from familiar interface elements. The design argument is that not ALL web sites should be made following 'commercial' guidelines.

Both sides have said their piece and somewhere in the middle we have a blossoming interface-design subculture within which all ideas are valid and experimentation is actively encouraged.

The situation is similar in many respects to what went on in the early days of Xerox Parc (The research centre that pioneered the graphical user interface, the mouse, postscript and ethernet) as both communitities comprise(d) a unique mixture of artists and programmers. The only difference this time is that the conceptual work is being carried out on a global scale.

The classic 'windows' GUI concept is well over thirty years old. It has matured a great deal since its humble beginnings in Palo Alto but has stood the test of time, for the most part due to extensive user testing and ergonomic research.

It's no surprise that the usability fraternity are up in arms. They must feel like the lunatics have taken over the asylum as they watch this bunch of ex-animators wage war on the common user interface.

What probably offends them most is not that these upstarts are approaching the subject without any pre-conceived notions but more that many are charging ahead without due reverence to the rulebook. Artists don't care much for behavioural studies. To a design community who use their personal sites as a way of escaping the commercial constraints of their day work, the concept of 'Navigation as Art' is very appealing. Even more so if it upsets a few people along the way.

In the commercial arena though, 'usable Flash' is still very much in its infancy. As the sacred cows of user interface are put under mass scrutiny only time will tell if this popular revolution will produce any paradigms as enduring as the last.

Although Designers and Usability engineers come at the same problems from different angles I think it's safe to say they are both similar in one respect. They are both control freaks. Both jobs demand control of the environment.

Flash developers have already set their sites beyond the simple web page. At NMUF2 the WDDG demo-ed Flash skins for WinAmp. If other programs become Flash-ready then the evitable destination will be the OS itself. If you thought last years bitching session was rough then imagine the controversy over the prospect of Flash skins for Mac OSX .

Some developers have already set their sights on the browser. We've all used javascript to remove the 'Back' button from a popup browser window (thus preventing the user from blowing away your movie) but recently some Swedish boffins have upped the ante by removing the browser chrome completely.

Now before you all go off and start playing with this feature (I know I will) a quick reminder of the rules: With greater control comes greater responsibility. That essentially is the message of the usability experts.

By all means go and change the world but first do your homework and put your users first.