>> We "do" VW - www.newgolfgti.co.uk being the latest. I like this applet but it does illustrate one common problem with flash. Because it allows designers a great deal of design flexibility they need to be careful that they create obvious visual cues to the interactive elements on their page (in the words of Steve Krug, "don't make me think"). In this case, it is not so obvious what the reader's options are, where they should click and to what objective. It's not bad - I'm not dissing the applet - it's just not 'in your face' obvious. I had to concentrate and fiddle my mouse over the screen to realize I had places to click, and even, at first, that I was in an applet that allows me to customize a car.
The introduction screen would benefit from rewriting. I'd suggest eliminating the second paragraph and including the named standard features in the list to the right thus making it obvious to the reader that they have a list to fill out. The first praragraph might read simply "Proceed to add custom features to your new VW Golf >>". Likewise, eliminate the second page because it doesn't give the user a customizing choice of engines (apparently there is only one so add it to the list on the first page). For the following pages perhaps pulsating the size and alpha of the clickable areas slowly would do the trick of cueing the reader that they can interact with the elements. I would also suggest that the clicable elements not be overlayed on complex images as it obfuscates them. They should be places in isolation on a solid background to delimit them as choice selectors. The doors selection page and the upholstry selection page in particular are cognitively fuzzy. I see this frequently with flash applets. Here's one that a lot of effort must have gone into, where it's not so obvious that the reader needs to click at all at first, and if they click on the text prompt that does say Click Here they miss the main flash interaction altogether. Again, the main flash interaction is not so obvious at first, pulsating the delimiting boxed areas might add to the user perception that they can interact with them, and including a clickable area immediately without needing to scroll to see one would improve the applet. http://redlobster.com/homeflash.asp My point here is that in using the flexibility of Flash, the designer needs to compensate for the intrinsic cues that standard html provides but which they are abandoning. All the Best, Don - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
