Mr. Nielsen, what do you think of usability of Flash today?

Jeff Atwood over at his blog Coding Horror (which is one of my favorites) recently posted an article Usability is Timeless where he presents an extract from Jacob Nielsen’s latest book Prioritizing Web Usability. The extract shows how Nielsen thinks web usability issues have evolved from the time he wrote his first book on web usability… each issue is rated from zero to three skulls to represent how severe and relevant these issues are today (three skulls represent most severe). The issues are also divided into the following four categories:

1. Usability issues that are still major problems today
2. Usability issues that are less important due to improvements in technology



3. Usability issues that are less important because users have adapted to the web
4. Usability issues that are less important because designers have learned restraint

Jeff’s article and its comments, as always, were an interesting read, but what i was more interested in was finding out if with the advent of Flex, Mr.Nielsen’s views about Flash and its usability had changed now …. well apparently not so much … “Adobe Flash content” has got 2 skulls (quite severe) but he does seems to have swayed a little from his 7 year old view of Flash: 99% Bad and thinks that the problem with Flash’s usability has improved a little because of the evolution of technology.

With all due respect to Jacob Nielsen and his work I do not understand how he has generalized his comments about Flash over the years and targeted the technology instead of blaming people responsible for miss use. C++ can be used to make both excellent software and computer viruses.. we don’t say C++ is bad.. we say viruses and the people who make them are bad. Similarly, Flash can be used to make both excellent software and annoying adds … how can you give 2 skulls to “Adobe Flash content”?

The generalization may have been justified to some extent in the year 2000 when Flash was used mostly to make banner adds and splash screens but it is certainly not justified today when the world is seeing so many full fledged applications being made in Flash using Flex. I am listing just a few Flex applications here and then i ask you Mr.Nielson what do you think of the usability of Flash today?

• Picnik
• Yahoo Maps
• InteliSea
• JamJar
• Amgen Tour Tracker
• Scrapblog

P.S: Mr.Nielsen would probably not be listening, so i’d appreciate everyone else’s comments as well