FLASH: Survey - Should Flash 5 use a browser-based help system?

[Michael Maffie]

Greetings, Flashers,


Most of you are by now familiar with the browser-based

online Help system that comes with Flash. I've recently

learned that Macromedia plans to continue using browser-based

Help in Flash and in fact, plans to extend this approach to 

its other products.


I feel it's time to check in with you good folks, the

users, to see whether you prefer this kind of Help system

to the standard native Windows or Mac Help engine.

Specifically, I'm hoping you'll share your opinion on 

whether future Flash releases should continue to use

browser-based Help, or whether a migration back to the 

native Help system is your preference.


The rest of this message contains:


1 - MM's rationale for using browser-based help

2 - My personal opinion (skip this if you want 

     to avoid my biases)

3 - A survey - four quick questions


I am asking you to use the survey to weigh in on this question. If

you send your info to me directly at

mmaffieerols [dot] com

. I will compile 

the results, send it all to Macromedia, and post that compilation

to this list as well.


Also, I'll be posting (or have already posted) a similar survey on Dreamweaver, Director, Fireworks, and Freehand lists, and If you 

use those products, then I'd appreciate your feedback there as well.


Many thanks,

Michael


=======  1 - MM's rationale for using browser-based help =======  


Macromedia tells me that they are moving all their applications

to browser-based help because "everything we do must be cross platform 

without exception".


I'd originally thought that the move to browser-based help was some

kind of cost-saving move, but MM assures me that this is not the case.

On close examination, I believe them, because they've obviously put a 

good amount of work into this, and have tried hard to bring most of 

the elements of a native help system into the browser.


=======  2 - My personal opinion =======  


I'll come right out and say that I really don't like browser-based 

help, and am sorry to learn that MM intends to move farther in that

direction. Let me nutshell my three main reasons:


1. Compared to the native Mac and Windows help engines, browsers

     are a clumsy and less suitable alternative:

     - A browser uses more screen real estate than is necessary for 

       the job.

     - A browser uses more memory than is necessary for the job.

     - It loads much more slowly than the native Help engine, and

       once the browser itself is loaded, the content pages (like

       the index) take much longer to load than comparable native Help.


2. When the Help system depends on the browser, it competes with other

     activities that also use the browser.

     - For example, I've had Fireworks Help wipe out a purchase I was 

       in the process of placing on the Web, and I couldn't refresh it with

       the Back button because it depended on secure submitted forms data. 

     - Another example is that in Dreamweaver 2, if you have the Help 

       system open and you go to preview a Web page you are working on,

       your preview page will likely-as-not show up inside the Help

       system's frame set - a major annoyance. 

    

3. The Search utility is much less flexible, and much slower, than that

     in the native help engine.


While I applaud MM's desire to provide as much cross-platform 

consistency as possible, there are certain situations where there's

something to be gained by letting this goal slip a little.


For example, consider the highly-useful context menu. On Windows, 

you view an object's context menu by right-clicking on it. On the 

Mac, you get the menu by clicking while holding down a modifier key. 

If you want to be fully cross-platform consistent, then I suppose 

you could force users of both platforms to use the Mac method. Or, 

you could eliminate context menus from the product entirely. 

Fortunately, Macromedia chose neither of those options, but instead, 

lets Windows users do it the Windows way and Mac users do it the Mac 

way. This decision works to everyone's benefit.


I'm puzzled as to why the Help system question was not resolved the 

same way. The native Help engines on both Mac and Windows provide 

benefits over the browser-based approach, and I suspect that most 

users would be glad to use the engine on their native platform. 

There's no new stuff to learn, and not a single page of documentation 

would have to be rewritten.


It looks to me like the goal of cross-platform consistency has become 

deified as an end in itself, and the quality of the end user experience 

has taken a back seat in the process.


=======  3 - The survey  =======  

Please answer the 4 questions below and send the results to me at

mmaffieerols [dot] com

.


1. Put an X before the response that best describes your position

     about browser-based Help in Flash.


   ___  a. I would like Macromedia to continue using the current 

           browser-based help in Flash.

   ___  b. I lean in favor of browser-based help, but could go either way.

   ___  c. I'll be fine either way; no preference at all.

   ___  d. I lean in favor of native Windows or Mac help, but could go 

           either way.

   ___  e. I want Macromedia to stop using browser-based help and 

           go back to using a native Windows or Mac Help system in 

           Flash.


2. Put an X before everything below that you agree with regarding the 

     importance of cross-platform consistency in general.


   ___  f. Cross-platform consistency is so important that it's worth

           achieving, even if it means that useful features will be left 

           out of a product.

   ___  g. Cross-platform consistency is so important that it's worth 

           achieving, even if it means implementing features in a

           "lowest common denominator" fashion that works on both 

           platforms but which would not have been the preferred method 

           on either platform.

   ___  h. Cross-platform consistency should primarily focus on the ability to

           use the same image files on different computers.

   ___  i. Cross-platform consistency should primarily focus on making it easy

           for the user to move from machine to machine without having to 

           learn new application-specific skills. (distinct from OS-specific 

           skills)

   ___  j. (Make your own statement about the importance and proper

           implementation of cross-platform consistency.)

     

3. Please add your own comments about whether browser-based help is a good

     idea for future Flash releases:



4. What's your name, and is it OK if I submit it to Macromedia with

     your comment?



=========== end ===========



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