[Sigia-l] Re: Flash no longer 99% bad

[Anders Ramsay]

For those of you not on the CHI-WEB list, this came from Don Norman, and
seemed pertinent to the previous Nielsen/Macromedia thread.
-Anders

------ Forwarded Message
> From: "Donald A. Norman" <don at jnd.org>
> Organization: jnd
> Reply-To: don at jnd.org
> Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 07:48:37 -0500
> To: CHI-WEB at acm.org
> Subject: The Flash turn-around
> 
>> David Unsworth wrote:
> 
>> What is more remarkable is the amount of u-turns going on
>> about this technology. How have Macromedia persuaded the
>> gurus of web usability?
>> 
>> The Nielsen Norman Group seem much happier with Flash these days...
> 
> -------------------------------
> 
> That is precisely backwards. The U-Turn, if there was one, was at
> Macromedia.  The Nielsen Norman group has not changed its stance about
> what makes a good design. We should be applauding companies that listen
> to criticism and work to remedy the problems.
> 
> Remember, the quarrel has always been with the website designer, not
> with the tool. The only quarrel with the tool was that it seemed to
> encourage excess, that Macromedia should provide better positive
> guidance and examples, and that Flash did not support accessibility
> guidelines.
> 
> I spent an afternoon at a Macromedia offsite recently. All I can say is
> that I have seldom found a more receptive client. They have already
> modified Flash for accessibility. Working with Jakob (Nielsen) they have
> developed a toolkit of design elements to make developers lives' easier,
> while simultaneously using UI-compliant elements. And I found absolutely
> no disagreement about design principles.
> 
> When we have companies that listen to criticism and then take positive,
> remedial action, we should applaud: usability matters, and companies
> that listen matter even more.
> 
> We need sexy, fun, attractive, and delightful websites. Those same
> websites also need to deliver the services and information that their
> users/customers wish, with intelligence, understandability, and
> efficiency, but the exact mix of fun versus service depends upon the
> company, the mission of the website, and the desires of the viewers.
> Flash is powerful tool to get there. It is not the only way, and it can
> be misused. But let us not confuse the tool with the product. And let us
> not think that we need to compromise on usability.
> 
> Don Norman
> 
> Disclaimer: The obvious. Macromedia is a client of the Nielsen Norman
> group, but I would have written this anyway. Note my impassioned
> avocation of Flash as a superb cross-platform tool for web applications
> 2 years ago, long before anyone ever dreamed they would ask us to work
> with them.
> 
> Donald A. Norman
> 
> Prof. Computer Science,  Northwestern University
> norman at northwestern.edu
>   and
> Nielsen Norman Group      http://www.nngroup.com
> norman at nngroup.com        http://www.jnd.org
> 
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