Flash Ads that itches

I saw it being done, able to do during the Flash 6 Player days and was really against using it in the wrong manner. If you are using it, have an option for the user to disable it, close it or atleast make it non-intrusive; but TimesJob have their flash pop-up ad without even an option to close leave alone disable it. It is not just their site but I have encountered on coupla other sites, I really hated them.

Or was it that the Designer/sDevelopers thought s/he found a cool widget to do that?

That is how some low-rung Flash Developer do to Flash - to make the misnomer Flash 99% Bad true. And they will lament that their Flash Jobs isn’t that paying or that lucrative! Did they felt cool doing it? When they looked at their work after finishing that stupid copied-from-google-search-script, what were they thinking?

Please buy, download and read the 117 design guidelines for Flash usability. Usability; It is not being forced to maintain, follow all. Pick the best and the ones that is best suited for a particular situation and use them. They are guidelines, atleast follow the ones that is in mainstream.

Excerpt from Jakob Nielsen’s feeback on 117 design guidelines for Flash usability. Read the full article about Flash and Web-Based Applications.

The good news is that the tyranny of the browser has come to an end. We no longer have to squeeze functionality and feature-oriented design into a frame that was optimized for navigating hypertext and reading articles. The bad news is that the move to Internet-based applications requires designers to pay attention to a new set of guidelines, besides those we’ve identified for Web design.

In essence, we can state much of Web usability as: answer customers’ questions, get to the point, and take it easy on the bells and whistles. If only we could get websites to stop annoying users, much would be gained.

Applications have to go much further than simply answering questions. They need features - the right ones, and not too many - presented in ways that empower users. This is a much tougher design challenge than simply providing information. Flash applications require a new level of usability commensurate with their status as ephemeral applications. A focus on simplicity will be key, as will a much deeper understanding of users’ needs than has characterized the first decade of Web design.