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I followed the RSS link to your article titled “Meet Your Peers” and my browser locked up tighter than a maximum-security prison at the hint of an escape plan.
Forty-five little Flash video windows? Give us a break! Are we assuming everyone has a T2 connection or better? Mine is fast, but not that fast, and anyone relegated to dialup is just completely out of luck.
The videos should be delivered via individual descriptive links that give us an option to view or not to view. Rich media should never be forced on browsers. Progressive enhancement, Jorge! At the very least, break it up into a smaller number of videos per page …
Jorge Arango
400 Reputation points
Posted 2008/04/29 @ 08:29AM with
Hi Jeff, thanks for writing, and sorry to hear you’re having trouble with the story.
“Meet your peers” was something of an experiment for B&A. The idea was to convey the overwhelming feeling one gets at the IA Summits of meeting all these people in one place in a short amount of time. I believed (and still do) that the best way to do this was to present all 50-odd videos on the same page.
We knew going in that we were pushing the envelope with regards to what is possible with Flash video, so we went to great lengths to ensure that the story wouldn’t give too much trouble. Specifically:
* We coded the story so the videos don’t load when the page is loaded. Each video only starts loading once you click on it. As a result, you don’t need a fast internet connection.
* We tested the page extensively on various browsers and platforms, including old (obsolete) browsers. We didn’t get any trouble from any of the configurations we tested. (It’s also worth noting that the story has published over three weeks, and this is the first complaint we’ve received about it.)
Can you give us more details about the environment you loaded the page in? (System memory, operating system version, browser version, news reader where you followed the link from, etc.)