Drag 'n' Drop IQ Test

Introduction

Adding interactivity to your Flash movie can take many forms. Simple buttons are effective, but encouraging more action from the user will draw and keep their attention longer. A key interactive feature that you can use is the ability to drag'n'drop movie clips. This feature, added to Flash in version 4, has hundreds of potential uses. You could use drag'n'drop to customize the features of a product in an online configurator. In a pool game, dran'n'drop could be used to position the cue ball after a scratch. Other uses of drag'n'drop include testing, training and building.

Understanding the user interaction with a drag'n'drop element is important when you decide to incorporate drag'n'drop elements into your Flash movie. It is important to remember that different types of pointing devises can make dragging and dropping much harder to control. A standard mouse is very easy to drag'n'drop with, while a trackpad or a push pad make the operation much harder. When possible, you need to evaluate the usefullness of drag'n'drop based on the pointing devises of your users.

In a nutshell, here is the user process for a drag'n'drop action:

• The user selects an object by moving the mouse over it and clicking on it.
• While the mouse button is depressed, the user can move the object around the stage.
• On release of the mouse button, the object stops moving.

Adding drag'n'drop functionality to your Flash movie is fairly straight forward, once you understand the basics:

• Only named Movie Clips can be dragged.
• Only buttons respond to mouse actions
• Movie Clips can not change depths within a layer.