To view your favorite TV show, you zap to the right channel, watch 30 seconds of a creepily familiar introduction video clip, and then the show starts. When you take the elevator, you just press any of the new symbols that are displayed on a huge array of buttons, and see what each one does. You keep pressing them, one by one, until you reach the right floor. Oh, and the buttons look like chewing gum stuck to the wall. Well, you re not alone.
Usability is all about offering people something they are looking for.
That means offering it quickly, correctly, and with maximum accessibility. On a Website, accessibility depends on factors like loading times, user requirements and navigation. Navigation breaks down into buttons, structure, and guidance. Flash offers wonderful tools to create menus, navigation tricks, and really exotic buttons. Everybody that is starting to work with Flash will be thinking about things like an interactive phone for a menu, or a tree, a remote control, body parts, cubes, balls, subway maps, giant fruit baskets, planetary models - but remember, no matter how cute or cool or ingenious y our interface might seem to you, it doesn t work if it doesn t work.