This is a great site to toy with – and in many respects a terrific showcase for creative flash design. But as marketers and UI designers, we wonder whether one can really appreciate this site fully? Certainly, in terms of usability, the site doesn’t rock particularly hard. But more to the point – does it do the best job it possibly could of highlighting how fantastic these guys are? If you think so, just try finding the drum machine.

If you cruise flash sites all day, you’ll know where to click – and you may be able the read the katakana prompts that tell you to “enter.” And you’ll also know that the tree – like some sort of anime Yggdrasil – is literally a navigation device. But you’ll quickly grow impatient if you’re looking for something specific.

And therein lies the issue. Is one ever looking for something specific on a site like this, vs. just farting around or getting a feel for the nature of the designers’ creaivity? Probably not. But, if so, isn’t one already in the know about how to get around or what to expect? Probably. But we still doubt it would compromise the coolness factor too much to make the navigation a little faster and less repetitive – and putting stuff that’s obviously meant to be promotional, like the drum machine, closer to the surface. Then again, I guess we would say that. But the tensions between free-form flash creativity and questions like these are worth re-examining, as flash penetrates mainstream site design more and more.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2005 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Usability, Flash and Usability.