Dear Internets/web designers
Sunday, June 8th, 2008Hey - just because you have a fancy pants flash website doesn’t mean you shouldn’t label your navigation. I shouldn’t have to mouse over 50 different colored dots - or fishing lures - or anything else in order to figure out your navigation. Talk about a waste of time. The more I internet - the more I’m starting to lose interest in making flash sites.
Of course flash is going to be less accessible to people with special needs - but it shouldn’t be any less accessible than XHTML sites for non-special needs people. Honestly guys Flash != cool (for you non flash people that’s actionscript for Flash is not equal to cool).
The internet is still 85% information driven (I’m making that number up). Design goes a long way in establishing credibility - or ruining it. However, as much as I hate to agree with Jakob Nielsen - people want their information. They don’t want to guess, they don’t want to wait, and they don’t want to hunt for it. If you want to use flash, that’s fine - but take advantage of the smooth transitions and effects without sacrificing what you should be offering your user.
While we’re on the subject - intros suck - the only intro you need should be a preloader.