Chatting with Vas Sloutchevsky
di Christian Giordano
Pubblicato il 4 Settembre 2003
As an in depth study of my article about the User Experience in Flash, I thought it would be interesting to interview a prominent character in the development of full featured Flash web sites. Those of you who have read my article (Italian only) can probably guess who I’m talking about: Vas Sloutchevsky, Vice President and Creative Director of Firstborn Multimedia.
Firstborn is a New York based agency that, thanks to Vas’s creativity, was able to achieve great success in Multimedia Design. I remember well when in 2000 they won the FlashForward award with their Yigal Azrouel’s site, unfortunately no longer online. Since then they have continued to maintain their success thanks to the original interactive solutions Vas’s mind has created, designing interactive medias for companies like Victoria Secret, Calvin Klein, Beatles, Madonna and many others as famous, with which, obviously, they continued to win awards.
So, I really think that when we talk about evolved usability with Flash, we have to talk about Firstborn and therefore about Vas Sloutchevsky.
Christian: You are for sure one of the top agencies giving attention to how to use Flash to create the best user experiences ever. Do you believe there are many other agencies that take the same care as you do? Do you believe that the need for advanced and smart sites like the ones you create, will increase or will the demand for them suffer for usabilitists will discard Flash in any case?
Vas: We are definitely not the first and the last Flash shop to pioneer new user experiences. We are very humble in that regard. “Usability experts” will not affect the way we think about interactive design. If we were to listen to them every time we create a new site there would’ve been nothing new and innovative in what we do.
C: Interactive Design is a quite mature topic, it includes the study of basic HTML too, from what I’ve read about you it seems to be obvious that Interactive Design regards something more evolved and so more animated/interactive. Do you believe it is time to update this topic? What about the classic gurus of the usability like Nielsen?
V: Usability guidelines have to be in tune with the reality of today’s trends. HTML is no longer the only game in town. In many cases HTML serves as a shell for other technologies. Flash, DHTML and Java are opening new possibilities in interface design. Nielsen and others have to revise their views on what’s good for the user. On top of that, some interface designers cater to very limited audiences and therefore one cannot measure their relevance by applying common standards.
C: Do you ever find youself imagining solutions which are not doable using existing technologies? Do you believe that who’s designing these solutions needs to know perfectly the updated technologies? On your own works, in terms of percentage, how much is important the theory, like the idea, and how much the tecnology?
V: When I approach a new project I always think of technological limitations. As soon as I learn about a new feature or possibility in Flash I tend to think about what I can do to weave it into my design. Sometimes the whole idea can revolve around one feature. For instance, we’ve learned about the “hidden” anti-aliasing mode in Flash where images do not distort or ripple when rotated and built an interface for our party photo album where images rotate randomly.
C: Looking at your works we can notice you usually don’t add any audio effect associated with the interactions but only some background loops. Don’t you believe audio effects could help people to perceive the actions?
V: This is one of areas that we need to explore more. Being a graphic designer I am a very visual person. Of all 5 senses the sight is the dearest to me. But I agree, that to achieve a more immersive experience one should make the full use of audio as well. That does not necessarily go for “clicks” and rollover “blings” but rather a more creative, interactive approach to sound design. Firstborn’s site number 4, for instance, used the concept of “Aural Color” where the user mixes sounds while changing the color of the interface.
C: I am attracted by the fact that you try to do more operations with fewer actions as possibile using often the “rollover” event. Do you have any rule you follow while designing your works?
V: My rule of thumb is “Hide but keep it handy”. The more you can think of ways to minimize “work” for the user by unifying certain actions into one, the more usable your interface will be. People tend to choose the path of less resistance.
C: Where do you look for inspirations? Which books would you suggest to someone who would like to extend his knowledge in Interactive Design with something more inherent to the interactivity that multimedia can offer today?
V: One thing I know for sure is that generating an original idea takes looking in other directions, rather than existing interactive work. I find my inspiration in graphic design books or a Sunday stroll through SoHo galleries. Sometimes an idea strikes me when I watch TV. But I do not remember a single time when I’d be inspired by some website. This is a graphic designer talking.