[Sigia-l] Flash and User Experience

[Andrea Tanzi]

Ok here’s the thing:

I have my first potential client ok. I prepared a ppt with all the
explanations and justifications needed to user experience consulting and
IA. It went great. The Marketing Manager whom I was with seemed to
understand everything and was very impressed by my body of knowledge and
real life examples that he could so well relate to.

Then he said that he had an offer from a design shop that was within his
budget. This design shop develops in Flash MX / .Net technology. He
showed me their website and a couple of their clients' sites. All of
them completely developed in Flash.

The client is the only Toyota and Daihatsu dealer in my country. They
are huge here. (Toyota is by far the leading car brand here)Their
business is very complex and very customer service oriented. There is a
lot they could do on the web as far as customer relationships goes. They
are also the perfect candidates for a CMS.

I am personally not very fond of Flash. I am also well aware of the
improvements they've made with this MX version, well actually not very
well aware since the point of this email is actually to know your
opinions on the matter.

I didn't make a judgment right then and there, instead I said I would
study the situation since the marketing manager is expecting my
recommendation that would also include an option if I'm not for the
Flash developers and off course a budget.

What are your experiences with Flash and usability, labeling, scaling,
back end integration, cms, crm and general user experience, not only
from the customer perspective but also from the site administration
side?

Thanks,
Andrea Tanzi
User Experience Consultant
San José, Costa Rica
www.andreatanzi.com