Usability Ideas

Hello flashers and flasherettes :slight_smile:
I need some help in brainstorming for usability tutorials. What are some good topics that can be covered on the site? I have one on searching, but I am sure there should be more…just don’t know what haha.

Cheers,
Kirupa

I think menus is the obvious thing to do.
Then maybe something about the structure of a Flash site.

pom 0]

I’m not sure if this is what you had in mind, but these are a few things that come to mind right now in terms of web usability in general:

–Target Audience: For example, Flash is great for eye candy and stunning visual effects, but not great if the user is purely looking for information yet has to go through an intro and numerous special effects.

–Good Choices: A little Flash goes a long way. Flash is great for enhancing a static HTML site. You don’t have to make your whole site in Flash.

–Navigation: A cool Navigation bar is…cool, but again, think about your target audience. If it’s cool to look at, but hard to navigate, then it sort of defeats the purpose! Your navigation/menu bar is to help people navigate through your site, how ironic if you need directions to tell people how to use your menu bar. =)

–Text: try to use sans-serif text for easy computer screen reading. Keep in mind of the text size. Many of the nice flash sites use really small text, but it is difficult to read. If the user is trying to get information, they won’t appreciate it if they have to squint really hard or lean in close to the screen. Or try a pixel based font in Flash, those are still quite small, but slightly easier to read.

Just off the top of my head for now, will let you know if I think of anything else!

Fuzz

Thanks! I really appreciate the suggestions. I am adding a few more to the list:

*full size Flash sites
*link directly to SWF or to “SWF in HTML”

I’ll start on them today!!!

Cheers,
Kirupa

By the way, I started my PHP tutorials. Better get that server soon :smiley:

pom 0]

oops. never mind

What is ** exactly** usability by the way ? I guess it’s the typical impossible to translate English word that you can’t find in a dictionnary but please try…

pom 0]

And what about accesibility ? :smiley:

Usability? I think it refers to making a site user friendly. As in, what makes a site more useful than others? Interaction? Design? Both? There is a certain “art” to providing the user with an interface that delivers quickly, without a manual. I’ve seen some beautiful Flash sites, full of A/S, but you don’t even know which button to press or, better yet, you don’t even know what is button.

Upon reading some of the descriptions and suggested topics above, I would say that in this context it may be making reference to “using Flash in a practical manner”. In other words, the stuff that is normally not in the tutorials.

Stuff like… PHP, MySQL, Panel Layout, Centering SWF in HTML, Organization skills in Flash, “Understanding A/S Kirupa style”, etc…