The Flash Usability Guide: Interacting with Flash MX

Rating:
Summary: Great book for all web designers
Review: Anyone serious about web design/development (whether you use flash or not) should read this book. It is well written and practical. Showing you how to make your web site from the users side of view instead of the designers side of view, taking into account how to make it accessible for everyone, all the little things most web developers and designers miss along the way. Giving you real life siduations on what can happen during the stages of development and wrenches thrown in during the web development process (as any web developer or designer knows all to well from clients) and how to cope with them. It shows you fantastic strategies how to cope with user importance and usuabilty during every phaze of development (even ones you would never think was important) It also shows you when it's good to use flash and when not to. This is one of the best books I've seen written yet on the usuabilty of flash. An extreme must for all web designers and developers (even for those wanting to learn it just for themselves) If more would read books like this, the internet would be alot easier place to surf. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: importance of usability
Review: When I first picked up this book I had incorrectly assumed it focused on the new accessibility features in MX. This is merely a small part of what the book offers, however. Instead, it gets into the nitty gritty of what developers and designers need to consider as they build their sites in order to produce work that users can ..well, USE. I found this book addressed and offered solutions to many common problems, as well as some more interesting and subtle issues that arise during site production. My only gripe was that at times I felt that, due to the multiple-author nature of the book, certain material was retread chapter to chapter. Although each chapter offered something new, it also presented material previously addressed. Still, a very helpful book of practical theories and implementations amidst so many tutorial-based books on how to achieve cool effects.