Review of "Becoming Human"
Written: 1/5/04; 4:28:53 AM

My first assignment for my Flash class this quarter: find and review a Flash-based site on the Web.

Site: "Becoming Human"
URL: http://www.becominghuman.org/
Responsible Party: The Institute of Human Origins

Reviewed by: Madeline Althoff
Date: 4 January 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3
Browser: Safari 1.1.1
Connection: DSL broadband connection (768kbps, although I usually get more like 1200 on the test at www.dslreports.com)

Preface:

I had an entirely strange experience trying to begin this assignment. I didn't really know how to find a Flash site, and I tried to think of a site I'd previously visited, but I couldn't come up with anything... Using Google I came across this site: http://www.bestflashanimationsite.com/

I thought, great, I can do one of these sites. Well, I tried this one: http://www.amped-media.com/—but when it loaded, the sides of the page were cut off, so I was certainly not impressed!

So then I tried this one: http://iso50.com/—but it seemed that this domain could not be found.

So I tried this one: http://www.madrhino.com—and it was totally messed up! The first page that loaded kept reloading itself again and again and again! Then another page came, which was very slow to load, and it took me through a bizarre and slow demonstration of some sort of fingerprint ID process, after which it took me to yet another slow-to-load page that played bizarre music, and had virtually no content, and made no sense at all!!! Finally I found that by mousing over one area I could find some links, and I clicked on one that said "News". Some text appeared, consisting of two newsbites with some terse information about the company's latest product (at least I think so!). I couldn't make any sense of it, and I finally gave up. I learned nothing about what sort of company this is, what products and/or services it offers, or anything else at all. And it just kept playing some bizarre futuristic music from time to time!

I do not understand who thought these constituted good sites or why!!!

Finally I went to the archives of "bestflashanimationsite.com", and found this site: http://www.becominghuman.org/ I was so pleased to be quickly taken to a page that looked like a normal website! Hooray!

Site Review:

The Main Exhibit:
First I clicked on a couple of links, and windows popped up with information. I then clicked on a link that took me to the main exhibit: an interactive broadband documentary experience (Requirements: a Flash player, a broadband connection, and 64 MB RAM). I found the exhibit to fascinating and educational, as well as quite enjoyable--I spent a good hour looking at it! In my opinion it is a very well-done Flash production.

The Options:
Within the exhibit, I could choose to watch a series of documentary movies, and/or I could choose from other links to learn more about various topics...

The Documentary Movies:
I found the movies to be very well made, both in terms of content and technical aspects: the picture was clear; the sound was perfect; they ran without incident; they were easy to watch and follow; they were consise and informative. I could adjust the volume and control the movie (pause, stop, play). Sometimes a link to "learn more" would appear during a documentary. A top menu allowed access to each movie. Between any two movies I could choose to continue with the next movie or access the additional information features.

The Interactive Viewing Area:
A great amount of information was available to me within the viewing area, yet it was quite easy to navigate. Additional windows and screens could pop up in the viewing area and be easily closed. A panel that could rise up from the bottom allowed access to many additional screens of information. It was always clear to me what to do with the various features. Everything ran quite smoothly.

The Larger Environment:
A link to return to the main menu was always available on the larger webpage, along with links to contact the organization. The only problem was that one graphic did not load--by clicking on it I found out that it was a link to begin the documentary exhibit.

The "Resources" Window:
A separate window gave access to a glossary of terms, a detailed table of contents of the documentaries, and links to other websites with information on the various topics covered in the movies.

Time Issues:
Of course I do have a broadband connection, and one was required in order to see the exhibit, but I must say that load times were very minimal. There was very little waiting involved. At times the movies seemed a tad slow, but that may well have been a cinematic feature rather than a technical limitation...

HTML Option?:
To my knowledge there was no HTML option for this page. I think it could have been done, in theory, with the movies being offered as MPEGs or AVIs or whatever, but I think that the process would not have been nearly as straighforward and seamless as it was with Flash.

Conclusion:

An excellent site: I recommend it highly.