Just one "plug" for Flash
Gerald Combs
gerald at ethereal.com
Wed Mar 19 20:16:25 CST 2003
Jakob Neilsen has a number of good articles about Flash on his site. In
particular, there's "Flash: 99% Bad":
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html
I've had to cover flash animations with my hand in the past just to be
able to read the content of a web page. Flash has a lot of good
potential, but most people use it for evil.
BTW, anyone considering the use of a Flash intro page should check out
http://www.skipintro.nl/skipintro/skipintro98.htm
first.
On Wed, 19 Mar 2003, zscoundrel wrote:
> I am fairly ambivalent towards Flash. It is neat stuff from the bells
> and whistles stand point, but I had a LOT of trouble getting it
> installed on my RH box, and this soured me on the technology. (This was
> two years ago, the install is better now, but the frustration remains!)
>
> I despise a site that automatically drops you into a huge falsh
> extravaganza before you even get to the main page - so those sites
> never get a slice of my eyeball time. Point of courtesy, if you use
> flash, don't force it on people. the delay, even via cable modem, can
> be annoying when you are in a hurry to do something.
>
>
>
> Bradley Miller wrote:
> > A lot of times I see people wanting to talk about efficiency and speed .
> > . . let me give you a good example (not mine) that illustrates the point.
> >
> > Let's say you have multiple HTML documents, with forms, info, pictures,
> > etc.... You want to have the user fill out those forms an submit them.
> > With HTML, you are pushing the code to generate each screen of
> > information. When they click next, or submit, the user is waiting on a
> > page to be shoved back via their dialup or whatever line . . . to their
> > PC. You are basically describing a glass filled with water each time --
> > whether that's just a simple glass or an ornate mug.
> >
> > Now how would you do that with flash? Instead of describing that glass
> > for every page load, you send the glass once -- as the entire Flash
> > movie. The items that need to be filled out or communicated to the user
> > can be requested -- the water just needs to flow into the pages. You
> > save that screen redraw and extra HTML for every page load. Less byte
> > count = faster download = happier user. The initial page load might be
> > slightly higher depending on the movie complexity, but that slight
> > burden is negated by the improved user experience in navigating and
> > interacting with the site.
> >
> > Like I said in a previous post -- anything can be abused. From email,
> > to animated gifs . . . it's been done. You can't simply throw the baby
> > out with the bath water here on acceptance of Flash. I believe one
> > study was well over 90+% of all web surfers have a Flash player on their
> > system . . . that's hard numbers to dispute if you can provide a value
> > added product to your client. One of the questions that we wrestled
> > with on this career site was "would people use it" and the overwhelming
> > answer was "they will if they want a job".
> >
> >
> > Bradley Miller, Owner/Programmer/Designer
> > AccessZone Design - www.accesszonedesign.com
> > Blue Springs, Missouri
> > Phone: 816-228-3814 Fax: 775-254-6162
> > Toll-free: 888-872-4420 ICQ: 48555780
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> A marble traveling at 22,000 miles per hour would strike with as
> much force as a 400-pound safe traveling at just 60 miles per hour.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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