[thelist] flash accessibility/usability

[tommy]

There are some truly excellent Flash sites out, but they tend to be
those sites that are more entertaining that they are useful. One thing
that occurs to me reading this thread is that most of the arguments over
Good Flash and Bad Flash come down to interface design.

No matter how badly you design an interface in HTML the browser is still
going to provide certain consistent elements; there will be a back
button, there will familiar/consistent OS scrollbars. And of course if
the navigation is truly terrible there is still the Go Menu and URL in
the address bar that allow the chance to play 'guess the page name'.

A badly designed flash interface on the other hand doesn't give you any
clues or hints. Not even in the source. If you can't see/find the
appropriate button to click then your visit has just ground to a halt.

Personally, I don't care whether the back button lives in by browser
toolbar or is a groovy little animated arrow on the page itself; so long
as it's there and I don't have to spend ten minutes figuring out how to
get around. I guess Flash is the interface designer's equivalent of
working without a safety net.

Just my 0.02 :)

tommy