Ten usability tips for creating a Flash site (rpm) _flash Tutorials

Citation: According to Macromedia, a top flash designer, developer, and usability expert, we've gathered ten tips for creating a usable Macromedia Flash site.

Based on Macromedia's top flash designers, developers, and usability experts, we've gathered ten tips for creating a usable Macromedia Flash site.

These tips are just a start and we will continue to provide more research, learning and skills.

1. Remember the user's goal

Users often visit a site with a purpose, each of which is in accordance with their experience and leads them to their goals. When transferring your pages, you should have the key navigation links loaded first-in case the user wants to move to another area of the site. Mimicking the usual user graphical interface can often increase usability.

2. Remember the purpose of the website

Web design should reflect the needs of commercial or customer, effectively disseminate the main information and promote the brand. However, the goal of the site is best achieved by respecting the user's habits, so the site structure must meet the needs of the user, quickly directing users to their goals and avoiding any corporate or regional jargon.

3. Avoid unnecessary introductions

Although the animations presented are wonderful, they often delay the user's access to the information they are looking for. You should often provide users with a choice to ignore the instructions or visit your home page, and when they visit your home page for the second time, all users should ignore the profile animation (using the client's JavaScript to do this), and then provide the option to return to the animated page on the target page.

4. Providing logical navigation and interaction

• Ensure user navigation: Displays the previous address that the user has visited and the next address that he is about to visit. Remind users of the pages they have visited by using different colors of the link.

• Provides a link for users to easily jump back to the starting point of the section they are visiting.

• Specify the location of each link. Ensure that the structure of the links and the visibility of the naming method are not hidden until the user triggers an event (such as a mouse move near).

• Make sure that the button defines a good enough response area.

• Use the characteristics of the flash stream to first load the main navigation elements.

• Make sure the navigation back button. To do this, you can use the browser's built-in forward and backward navigation system to divide the flash movie logic into pieces and place it in a separate HTML page. As a choice, create a flash-based back button for the movie so that users can take it back to a scene or frame that contains the previous access page.

5. Coherence of design

The best way to improve your site performance is the consistency of the user interface. The reuse of element structures, the design of elements, and the custom of naming will give users more attention to the information they convey to the site as they orient their goals, and this can also be beneficial to site maintenance. You can use a small movie (Smart Clip) to reuse interactive elements throughout your site, and you can reuse text and pictures from the original navigation system on the target page.

6. Do not use excessive animation

Avoid unnecessary animations. The best animation should be an animation that adds to the site's design goals, telling a story or something helpful when navigating. Using repetitive animations on a page that contains a lot of text shifts the view from the message.

7. Use sound carefully

Sounds can be icing on the cake for your site but absolutely not necessary. For example, use a sound to indicate that a user has just triggered a time. Make sure the sound switches and volume adjustments are used, and remember that the sound can significantly increase the size of the file. When you do use a sound, Macromedia Flash converts sounds into MP3 files and even streaming media.

8. Low-Bandwidth users

The fewer downloads the better. The initial download page size cannot exceed 40K, including all Macromedia files, images, and HTML files. To reduce download time, use a vector graphic (unless the image makes a compressed BMP, preferably still in BMP format) and use the Load movie action only if the user determines that a file is being used. If the user must wait, provide a loading time series with the progress bar, as long as possible, must load the navigation system in the first 5 seconds.

9. Ease of use of design

Make sure that the content of your site is readable by all users, including those with disabilities. Using ALT tags highly ensures that Web content can be explained by assistive tools. The scalability of the movie is another Easy-to-use Macromedia feature that allows more users to understand the content of the site. If you need a thorough discussion of Macromedia Flash content availability, please login to the Macromedia Flash availability website.

10. Usability Testing

Let some novice to visit the site and complete the user goals and site goals. Even short Macromedia Flash animations can block users from achieving their goals, so use Macromedia Flash's bandwidth simulator (bandwidth profiler--Translator) (In the View menu's Test movie mode) To analyze the performance of the site in different bandwidth modes. Every time you repeat a test, even a small change. Make sure that the site's testers are at different levels of satisfaction from demographics to the site's scheduled users-especially if the intended users have navigation to the site.

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