User Expectations: Flash
This little gem popped up in my inbox not to long ago. VIP users of grooveshark are able to provide feedback and get to complain or file bug reports, which I randomly check (it would be a full-time job if I answered them). Most of the time it’s either feature requests, complaints that they spent about a cup of coffee’s worth of money, or in this case telling us how awesome we are.
Here’s the guts of the email (obviously removed some content for privacy):
mood: Impressed
feedback report:
Nothing too contributary to say to be honest.Just that your product is AMAZING.
It’s literally changed my entire view that every flash application is buggy and unreliable, you guys have done an absolutely stunning job. It’s so bug-less it’s suspicious!
Keep up the great work!
So, what are we supposed to take away from this? That we’re really good at what we do. Or maybe there’s something else we can glean from this comment. Users expect flash to be “buggy and unreliable”. Let’s review some common complaints that people (including myself) have thought about flash.
It takes forever to load
Typically a lot of flash applications have these front and center. But the problem is the typical programmer makes this dead simple and almost pummels the user visually with the “holy-shit-this-is-a-loading” screen. With the user unable to even perceivably able to interact with the site, the wait is made more apparent. I think primarily the difference between flash and other web applications is that the user already gets an instant layed-out interface and they see the page loading in, therefore it feels more responsive.
Realistically that up front cost of loading things in makes the application feel more responsive later in the applications session lifetime. If you were to compare the actual loading times between flash sites and normal sites I think you might be surprised if you used a stop-watch (or firebug).
It has annoying intros, with not a lot of content
I have to agree that this is super annoying. I simply loathe sitting through a preloaded intro with no perceptible way to skip only to be taken to a sub-par website. Intros have more or less faded in time, but watching horribly animated, boring segues has weighed on peoples perception of flash. There is a certain level of taste to be considered. Let’s not blame flash for others’ poor taste. Moving on.
It’s always Glitchy / Buggy
Pretend I am told to make a desk and I am provided with all the equipment I need and then some: hammers, screwdrivers, nice oak wood, etc… The problem is I have never made a desk and not a very good carpenter, so I hack it together. The desk I make turns out ok, is functional, but not quite what I wanted, and now the varnish is chipping off.
So, instead I buy a desk from IKEA, and have to assemble it. The desk is packaged in a really cool way (I recently bought a chair from their in a stair-case package) and it takes me a couple hours because it comes with dead simple instructions.
What I’m getting at is that Flash is a great set of tools. If I’m a great carpenter (hire me) the desk is going to come out better than something I bought, because I got to make the desk I wanted to from the beginning. Heck, if I wanted to I could’ve made a matching bookcase and hutch, and with the scraps a stylish spice rack for my girlfriend. Sweet!
But, if you’re a bad carpenter, you’re going to have a horribly buggy misshapen turd. You have way more points of failure. IKEA is that package (e.g. wordpress) people get when they want a quick fix, and not a lot of customization. There are fewer ways to screw it up.
So, maybe what we need to take away from this is that programmers and not their tools which are “buggy and unreliable”.