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Macromedia, sponsor of the WBT Producer 2001 Conference, collected these top ten tips for creating usable Macromedia Flash sites from top Macromedia Flash designers, developers, and usability experts. These tips are a start and you can continue learning more about Flash, usability research, studies and articles by visiting Macromedia's web site at http://www.macromedia.com.
Here are the first five of ten tips from Macromedia.
1. Remember User Goals
Users typically come to a site with a goal in mind. Each link and click should meet their expectations and lead them toward their goal. When streaming your site, have key navigation links appear first, in case the user wants to get to another area in the site. Emulating common GUI elements will increase usability.
2. Remember Site Goals
Site design should reflect business or client needs, effectively communicating the main message and promoting the brand. Yet site goals are best achieved by respecting the user experience, so site structure should reflect user needs, quickly leading the user to their goal and avoiding company or regional jargon.
3 Avoid Unnecessary Intros
While intro animations are exciting, they often delay the user's access to the information they seek. Always offer users either a Skip Intro command or alternative access to your home page. On their second visit to your home page, skip the intro animation altogether (use a client-side JavaScript cookie to accomplish this) then on the destination page give the option of returning to the animation.
4. Provide Logical Navigation and Interactivity
Keep the user oriented: Display the previous location and guide users to their next one. Remind users where they've been by programming links to change color after being visited. Give users an easy exit from each major section of the site and an easy return to their starting point. Clearly indicate each link's destination. Keep navigation structures and nomenclature visible, rather than hiding them until the user has triggered an event (such as a mouse over). Make sure your buttons have well-defined hit areas. Display primary site navigational elements first by using the streaming capabilities of Macromedia Flash. Support back button navigation. To do this using built-in browser forward and back navigation, separate Flash movies into logical chunks and place them on individual HTML pages. Alternatively, set up the movie to include a Flash-based Back Button that the user can use to return to a frame or scene that represents a logical previous page.
5. Design for Consistency
Consistency in user interface is the best way to improve your site's performance. Reusing architecture elements, design elements, and naming conventions frees the user's attention for your message while they navigate to their goal, and it also aids site maintenance. You can use Smart Clips to reuse interactive elements throughout the site, and have words and images from initial navigation links reappear on destination pages.
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