Usability Research Issues Regarding Flash Technology

Within the past few years, there have been various changes in Web site design and development. Discussed earlier in this chapter, one major change is the introduction of Flash technology as an alternative platform for the delivery of Web

content. According to Macromedia, the marketer of Flash technology, Flash enables the delivery of “highly visual interactive content” through the Web (Macromedia, 2003b). Although the benefits of Flash have not yet been clearly investigated, many developers have rushed to offer the Flash version of their Web sites to the public, mostly due to the freshness of Flash technology and the impression that Flash can somehow make their Web sites “alive,” and therefore attract more visitors. But since Flash requires more bandwidth and higher user hardware specifications, some users may experience difficulties viewing Flash-enabled Web sites. Therefore, at present many Web sites offer both Flash and HTML versions of their Web sites to the users.

This phenomenon can be seen by the fact that a search for the phrase “Flash version” on Google³ search engine returned more than 300,000 results (in July 2004). Some examples of well-known Web sites which offer both Flash and HTML versions to the users can be found in Appendix 6A.

This is the trend for now, but the future is still unclear. The current situation where two platforms (Flash and HTML) are offered concurrently may soon have to be eliminated because of the double maintenance cost involved. So, will Flash eventually replace HTML Web pages? The key issue underlying this question is usability. Users of Web sites should be the ones who determine which one has to go:

Flash or HTML, and usability is the key determinant. However, there have been very few comparative studies of Flash and HTML Web sites focusing on usability, in spite of the increasing controversy regarding this issue.

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Therefore, this research study addresses the issue by conducting usability evaluations of Flash and HTML versions of the same set of Web sites. It is critical that such research employs a methodology which clearly addresses the research issues; it must be able to demonstrate key usability differences between alternative versions of Web sites. Based on the research reported in Chapters 2 to 5, it was decided to use two different usability evaluation techniques: (1) contingent heuristic approach (WUCET questionnaire) and (2) eye gaze tracking (faceLAB). Other independent variables that might affect the usability score, particularly (1) user’s gender; (2) user’s previous experience with computers and the Web; and (3) user’s Internet connection speed, were also considered. Hypothesised trends will be discussed and formal hypotheses will then be listed.

Users’ gender and computer/Web experience have been selected as independent variables for this research because it is hypothesised that they are the key factors that may significantly influence the way a user perceives the usability of Web sites, especially when Flash technology is used. It is hypothesised that male users prefer flashy animated graphics and sounds, which are more pervasive in Flash Web sites than in HTML Web sites. It is further hypothesised that users with more computer/Web experience may feel frustrated with animated graphics and sounds in Flash Web sites because these components may distract them from getting their work done, and their experience dulls the impact of flashy graphics. On the other hand, users with less computer/Web experience may find that Flash provides more audio-visual presentations (than HTML) and therefore helps them use Web sites more easily.

Another factor that might contribute to the perceived usability of a Web site is the speed of Internet connection. As Flash Web sites are more multimedia-oriented than HTML-only Web sites, they tend to include more graphics, sounds, and animations. This usually makes Flash Web sites slower to load than HTML counterparts, which could be easily noticeable by users with slow Internet connection (dial-up). On the other hand, several sections of Flash Web sites are usually downloaded together, compared to HTML Web sites where only one page can be downloaded at a time. Therefore, users may feel that, although Flash Web sites seem to load more slowly at first, after the site is fully loaded, it can be browsed faster than HTML Web sites. Before the experiment, it was unknown which of the two effects had stronger impact on usability, so it was hypothesised neutrally that users with a slower Internet connection might see greater difference in usability between the Flash and HTML versions of a Web site than users with a faster Internet connection.

In addition to user characteristics and Internet connection speed, Web site purpose also plays an important role in usability evaluation. Different types of Web sites have different types of content (text and graphics), different graphical styles, different use scenarios and user objectives. Thus different aspects of usability are of greater significance and it is speculated that there might be some significant relationship between the type of Web site, its usability (as perceived by the users), and whether Flash or HTML was used. According to Turk (2000, 2001), there are five categories of Web sites that could be considered in this context: communication, information, entertainment, services, and e-commerce/marketing. However, this study utilised only three of them: (1) information; (2) entertainment; and (3)

e-commerce, because Flash technology is more likely to be found on Web sites in these three categories than in the other two.

The following research questions and their corresponding hypotheses are addressed in this study:

Q1: Is there is a difference in usability of the Flash and HTML versions of a Web site?

H1: The Flash version of a Web site provides higher usability than the HTML version.

Q2: Does users’ gender affect their perception of the comparative usability of the Flash vs. HTML versions of a Web site?

H2: Male users prefer the Flash version of a Web site (over the HTML version) to a greater extent than do female users.

Q3: Does users’ computer/Web experience affect their perception of the comparative usability of the Flash vs. HTML versions of a Web site?

H3: Users with shorter computer/Web experience prefer the Flash version of a Web site (over the HTML version) to a greater extent than do users with longer computer/Web experience.

Q4: Does users’ Internet connection speed affect their perception of the comparative usability of the Flash vs. HTML versions of a Web site?

H4: Users with slower Internet connection speed see the difference in usability between the Flash and HTML versions of a Web site to a greater extent than do users with faster Internet connection speed.

Q5: Does the category of a Web site (information, entertainment, e-commerce) affect the comparative usability of the Flash vs. HTML versions of the Web site?

H5: The category of a Web site (information, entertainment, e-commerce) affects the comparative usability of the Flash vs. HTML versions of the Web site.

Q6: Does the version of a Web site visited (Flash or HTML) affect users’

inclination and ability to perform tasks (use scenarios) within Web site, as reflected by the task completion score?

H6: The version of a Web site visited (Flash or HTML) affects users’

inclination and ability to perform tasks (use scenarios) within Web site, as reflected by the task completion score.

6.6 Conclusion

This chapter has discussed the role of Flash on the Web. It has been found that many Web sites utilise Flash technology; some Web sites use Flash as an add-on, while some Web sites are created entirely in Flash. However, true usability of Flash Web sites is still in doubt. Therefore, usability evaluations of Web sites developed entirely in Flash should be undertaken as compared to HTML-only Web sites, and the comparative study of these two approaches forms part of this research.

Two usability evaluation methods discussed earlier (contingent heuristic approach and eye gaze tracking) are used to compare Flash and HTML Web sites. Detailed

information about the research design and methodology will be discussed in the following chapter.

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