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Download Flash For Web Sites: Good, Bad Or Ugly?
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http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/eemlac-2005-01/ Accessibility and Usability For Web Sites: Flash For Web Sites: Good, Bad Or Ugly? Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath Use of Flash: • Great for developing attractive and highly interactive Web sites • A terrible innovation, which results in poor quality, Email inaccessible Web sites (which [email protected] thankfully are difficult to find in URL Google!) http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by: A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk About Flash What Is Flash? Flash (SWF) is a file format developed by Macromedia to deliver graphics & animation on the Web Advantages Of Flash • Can create attractive & usable interactive Web site • Widely supported "over 95% of Web users" Disadvantages Of Flash • Is 95% figure really true? What about users on new devices, users behind some firewalls, … • Accessibility problems • Architectural problems (discussed later) A centre of expertise in digital information management 2 www.ukoln.ac.uk The Good http://www.learndev.hull.ac.uk/Portal_survey/ Survey of priorities for a portal (with iPod prize!): •Available in Flash & HTML •Equal access to both versions In Flash version: •Process of moving cards to appropriate stack helps reflective process •Avoided 'ticking all in middle column' syndrome, leaving default values, … A centre of expertise in digital information management 3 www.ukoln.ac.uk The Bad And Ugly! <http://www.flashking.com/index_0203.html> Some questions: • What should I click on? • Why the flower? • How do I integrate resources into a VLE? • How do I cite various elements of the resource? • How do I resize text, change colours, …? • How do I use without a mouse? •… A centre of expertise in digital information management 4 www.ukoln.ac.uk Case Study – Weetwood.co.uk The Weetwood Hall conference venue in Leeds was used for a workshop recently. The venue Web site at <http://www.weetwood.co.uk/> was used to: • Find out about the rooms to be used and technical facilities available • Find details of the location, nearby accommodation and pubs • Share this information will speakers and delegates A centre of expertise in digital information management 5 www.ukoln.ac.uk Weetwood.co.uk – The Good The Web site is a Flash site. It uses Flash to: • Provide rich functionality for viewing the venue facilities (slider bars, pop-up images, …) • Site navigation •… http://www.weetwood.co.uk/ A centre of expertise in digital information management 6 www.ukoln.ac.uk Weetwood.co.uk – The Bad (1) The Web site: • Uses pop-ups, (increasingly disabled in new browsers) – does user miss out key information? • Text cannot be copied • Text does not flow and not resizable in normal way A centre of expertise in digital information management 7 www.ukoln.ac.uk Weetwood.co.uk – The Bad (2) The Web site: • Requires Flash (link to Flash site shown if Flash unavailable) • Isn't search-engine friendly – <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD no text to index XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" … <head><title>Weetwood Hall</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <body onLoad="showPopup()"> … <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/ ...swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" … id="weetwood"> … </object> <div id="footer"> <p><a id="subscribe" href="javascript:showDialog();">Subscribe to newsletter</a> | <a id="subscribe" href="javascript:showPopup();">Latest news</a></p> </body></html> A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk 8 For this information-based resource (with small interactive element) no or limited content displayed: • If Flash or JavaScript not available • On new browsers with default settings • On PDAs, mobile phones, … Weetwood.co.uk – The Ugly (1) The Web site actually does have a HTML equivalent – but its is very difficult to find! Flash Site HTML site With the HTML site users can: • Copy text • Bookmark pages • See link destinations • Resize text • Use browser controls to suit personal preferences •… 9 If you wished to book venue for a conference for disabled, the Web site A centre of expertise in digital management page on disabled www.ukoln.ac.uk would be a barrier – you can'tinformation easily bookmark access Weetwood.co.uk – The Ugly (2) How I found the HTML site: • An advanced Google search was used to find pages in the weetwood.co.uk domain Question DDA legislation requires organisations to take reasonable measures to ensure disabled users aren't unfairly discriminated against. There is a feeling that end users should also be expected to make reasonable adjustments. If a visually impaired dyslexic user needs to resize text and change background colour, can they be reasonably expected to HTMLinsite ininformation this way? Afind centrethe of expertise digital management www.ukoln.ac.uk 10 Weetwood.co.uk – The Ugly (3) With a Flash site and a HTML site to maintain there are issues about maintenance of the data: • Are there two sets of information to maintain? There is a danger that the lessused area will become out-of-date. • Does one area contain Useful (though out-of-date) No information on network a sub-set of the data? availability information on network availability A supermarket Web site won award for its accessibility - but disabled users could only access partofof Web site – and missedmanagement special offers. Is this fair?www.ukoln.ac.uk Is this legal? A centre expertise in digital information 11 Lessons Note that Weetwood Hall was a good venue for event held recently The Weetwood Web site: • Valuable information & useful extra functionality • Further use shows problems for all (lack of bookmarking, …) • Web site is also inaccessible for many The Web site could be improved: • Easily be adding a single link to HTML site from entry point which loads Flash page • Easily by adding links to HTML version from Flash site • More radically by providing a HTML site which links to Flash for required functionality 12 Issues: • How should you avoid mistakes at the specification stage? • How should you test Web site prior to acceptance to ensure A centre expertise inwith digital specification? information management www.ukoln.ac.uk it ofcomplies Any Questions? Any questions? A centre of expertise in digital information management 13 www.ukoln.ac.uk
