UKNM: RE: UKNM Digest V1 #220

[Ian Tester]

Cosmo Roe wrote; 


"*	please remember that 40% of net users (myself included) have

restricted shockwave capablilities due to operating from behind a firewall.

Ensure that you provide a basic no-shock version of the site for such users.

The prime example of this is Boo.com.  All that money, all that hype and

they put an unaccessible flash item on the pre launch intro page. Pathetic

research."


Actually, we put in an enormous amount of research on this issue,

unsurprisingly.


Using Flash is a trade-off . . .however, we're using Flash not "for effect"

but to give our customers some serious "value-add" features. Selling

clothing on the web is hard to do effectively, mainly due to the customer's

inability to try the clothes on, or gain a real-world impression of the

clothing. Go to some clothes sites. You might get a gif - which you might be

able to enlarge by clicking on it if you're really lucky.


We are using Flash to allow customers to try combinations of clothes on a

mannequin, and revolve it fully, to gain an impression of how they fit

together on a realistic body (ever had that sinking feeling as your

mail-order t shirt hits your knees?), do a full 3-d spin of objects like

trainers (go round to a friend's house and check out the 3-d spin!) and zoom

in to see detail on items. Add to this the huge amount of detail we'll be

providing on our lines, and it's a large step forward. We used Flash for

these features because it's the most accessible technology available to do

this properly. It also helps make the rest of the site look pretty

beautiful.


Non-Flash enabled browsers are *rapidly* becoming the exception - few people

(and certainly not 40%) are incapable of downloading flash, although I do

accept that people at work in companies with very strict IT policies won't

have the option of downloading the plug in if they're using an old, and

company-specified browser. Yes, a few people won't be able to use our launch

site and we realise that and have calculated for that, but the vast majority

will get serious benefit from our Flash-enabled features. And this group

will grow as people bin old browsers, and more come online with new

computers or new ISPs (or Clifford Chance replace their desktops). 


You'll be glad to know however, that we do also use Flash to include a

lovely swirly logo, but it does stay bang centre in the middle of the

screen, no swooping :-)


Now back to work,


I


Ian Tester, Knowledge Management - boo.com

boo.com Group Ltd. 5-7 Carnaby Street, London W1V 1PG

T + 44(20) 7950 2438 F +44(20) 7950 0951  M +44(7880) 557692    E

ian [dot] testeruk [dot] boo [dot] com

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