Adobe Flash Professional software is used for a number of web development functions, including adding animations and multimedia content. The software is somewhat expensive at $700, however the educational version is only $179. Flash is frequently used for video playback on the web, and most users have the Flash plugin installed on their computers. That said, if users don't have the free player installed then Flash-heavy sites won't work at all. An interesting dilemma in that realm is Apple's relationship to Flash. Apple did just lift a ban on Flash-built apps for the iPhone, but it was suggested on ReadWriteWeb that the ban had been in place long enough to effectively allow Apple to keep the Flash clutter out of the apps; lifting the ban allows them to appear gracious while having already achieved their goal. I believe this too, as yesterday I saw in Computer World that Macs will no longer be sold, starting with the new Macbook Air, with Flash pre-installed. The software can still be downloaded, but the message is clear that Apple wants Flash to disappear. Additionally, without Flash Player pre-installed some users may not bother to go out and grab the software, although Microsoft doesn't install Flash either, so maybe it isn't too much of a problem. Still, I could see this beginning to dissuade some web designers from using Flash and thus finding alternatives. That trend would be some time off however, and for now Flash is a good design tool.
Read the Computer World article:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9192699/Apple_dumps_Flash_from_Mac_OS_X?taxonomyId=123&pageNumber=1
Flash Vista:
The first website I will discuss today is FlashVista, a directory for all kinds of content related to Flash. There are some good elements to the web site's design, including a "random link" box that generates a thumbnail of a web site featuring flash animation that changes as you navigate from page to page. This is a good way to feature content that is included in the browsable lists on the site. Unfortunately, while the "site info" link under the thumbnail works, the "get another" link does not. Instead it (frustratingly) reloads the page with the same graphic in place. Additionally, clicking on the graphic to visit the featured random web site was hit or miss, sometimes yielding an error and suggesting the links on this site need to be validated. The links to Flash content that are provided are by and large pretty good. I found it more useful to use the main navigation and follow "top rated," "most popular," and "cool sites" than to try and browse the categories. The former option opened a list of randomly themed thumbnails while the latter opened sets of categories. This was good when there were sufficient category contents, but many categories were empty and I felt this equated to a lot of unnecessary clicking back and forth. Also, the most popular web sites are generally tagged as such for a reason: They are really interesting and represent the best of the contents available from FlashVista. In my opinion this makes those categories a better bet in terms of efficiently browsing for inspiration.
Moving on down the navigation bar, I found the Flash tutorials section to be one of the more helpful elements featured. The tutorials are mostly text-based, however several video tutorials from LearnFlash.com are also embedded in the site. (For the rest of the LearnFlash contents you have to navigate to an external site that requires a password.) I watched a great tutorial featured from LearnFlash.com that covered how to use the loader component in Flash to create a photo gallery. This solution is a much better way to add a gallery than having separate pages for each image, which can get unwieldy for a portfolio site. Even though I am not ready to invest in the program, I can see how Flash would be a good tool to learn for the future. That said, after I navigated away from the the video tutorial I never did find my way back to that section; the organization of the site is alright, but it is certainly easy enough to lose track of contents. The search feature was not much help in this case either, as it returned either many pages of results or no results, depending on where I specified it should peruse.
Overall, while there are worthwhile elements at FlashVista, I dislike the look of the web site. First of all, the long skinny content area at the left that houses logins, navigation, small thumbnails, etc. forces scrolling well past where the main content area on the right ends. This is annoying to see such copious amounts of white space. Also, I can't understand why the designer decided to label each section; it looks cheesy. For example, users are accustomed to seeing navigation links listed on the side of a page so there is no need to label the box "main navigation." I have less of an issue with the page headings, although I think they could be better integrated into the design. What I don't like are the clipart icons that precede the headings. The "home" page uses the classic house icon that was all over the place years ago (I think Office still has it in their clipart gallery); the "most popular" page uses a smiley face, "top rated" a trophy, and so forth and it looks amateurish. I actually think the width of the main content block is problematic as well. It creates long strings of text in some cases and just doesn't look quite right. Making that area narrower or perhaps adding another column to the page would have been a better choice. To be fair, the page is a directory and as such is meant to showcase the screenshots of external sites, not get in the way of the contents by overusing fancy graphics. Even so, more judicious use of color, a creative header, and a footer (which is MIA) would have made this web site sleeker, which is important given the function is to showcase other good designs. On a final note, I believe this site is abandoned, which would account for the dated look. There are no links entered under "new links" and the Flash News section has 1363 links, but the last one was posted in 2005.
Check out Flash Vista here:
http://www.flashvista.com/
Flash Explained:
As is the case with pretty much any software out there, there are lots of people sharing information about using Flash. Flash Explained is a web site by Luka Maras that contains tons of tutorials and some free downloads of things like fancy buttons. While I don't have Flash software in order to try out any of the tutorials, it is pretty clear that they are quality resources. First, the positive comments are a testament to the effectiveness of the directions. Second, as I read through several of the resources I noted that they were detailed and written in very clear language; this is a sure sign of a good how-to resource. As for the web site design, it is clean and extremely easy to navigate. His color choices are simple and the pages are uncluttered so that the focus is on the tutorial contents and not on distracting elements like graphics or banners. This lack of extras does not equate to a boring look, however, as it sometimes does on other more scaled-down pages. Instead Maras has used a quirky and fun color combination and large text to create interest. The header is a simple red box with a slight gradient and the navigation menu underneath is a thin strip of turquoise with white text hyperlinks. I would never have paired those two colors as it isn't a "normal" combination. I would have used a neutral color like brown to pair with the turquoise. But this red-turquoise combination is bold and makes the page quite interesting. A big part of the success is that he has wisely balanced the colors by making the turquoise bar roughly a third of the size of the red area so that neither color is competing for equal space. In order to continue that visual balance, he includes turquoise headers throughout the page, and then a solid block of red as the footer. Neither color overwhelms the other or the black text used for the body contents.
The layout of the site is also a plus. He has included links to well-organized topics in the main navigation bar. This is quite user-friendly because the categories are clear (banners, animation, sound, text, etc.) and the subsequent list of tutorials in each area are impeccably labeled with titles such as "creating a big glossy logo." It's pretty easy to see what clicking there will yield. My only criticism of the design is that the "recent entries" menu in the right column doesn't display correctly in my browser. I am using Firefox, and the red headline type is squished into the red header area, covering the search box. The list of links that follows, in turquoise type, begins just under the headline so the first link is covering the turquoise navigation bar. The only way to even see that an entry is there is by rolling over the area, which changes the type to black. Aside from that however, the site looks good and the contents are truly a useful resource for both Flash beginners and experts.
Check out Flash Explained:
http://flashexplained.com/
SitePal:
This site features Flash animations of avatars and is geared at adding a personal touch to your web page. The use of avatars in customer service roles seems a little contrived to me, and I would think visitors might be a little irritated by them; they seem a bit "impatient" to me because, at least in the demo on SitePal, the avatar kept moving her head and blinking while I was reading down the page. I can't imagine shopping or browsing on a web site with an avatar moving around waiting for me to finish and interact. I do, however, believe as the site suggests, that avatars would be useful for educational websites and training videos. Some people do learn better through interaction, and in such a setting a sense of communication could be important.
I think that by and large avatars are a good stand-in for live interaction in virtual world settings. There have been some studies that show people seem to interact through avatars as though they were in the same room. That is in a virtual 3-D world, however, where context is significant and live interaction is possible. The SitePals models are cool, but I don't think they can fill that interactive role in a more static web page environment and the illusion of "live" interaction with an avatar in that setting is paper thin. I also think they are somewhat of a fad, despite what the testimonials on the SitePals page suggest, except possibly in the training and education sectors.
The avatars available through SitePals look high-quality to me with a lot of options to customize their look, including uploading a photo to create a photo-realistic version of yourself. The animation is pretty good, although the lip movement doesn't precisely align with the audio if you look too closely. The audio itself is good, with options to record your own voice or use a text-to-speech feature, which sounds quite natural (as opposed to many free ones that sound jerky or tinny). These avatars are an easy way to add animation to your website without knowing how to create it yourself. The account you open with SitePals allows you to create a character and embed the code into your website after which any audio or character changes update automatically. This is all done for a monthly fee and could be a good option for some people. I think, again, that for most personal and many corporate sites these are a bad idea, but for a few applications they could really work.
Check out SitePals here:
http://www.sitepal.com/home/
Swift 3-D is a piece of software that integrates with Flash and is used to create custom 3-D graphics and animations. Actually, it is a standalone program that easily emports animations into Flash, or it is available as a Flash plugin that performs basic animations. In watching the video tour of the software capabilities I was impressed by how powerful but simultaneously easy-to-use it appears. For instance, on the basic side the software can create 3-D objects from existing vector graphics such as logos or from shapes drawn within the program. Once an object is created there is a library of textures, colors, and preset animations (like rotation) that can be applied. According to the product description such features are intended for beginners to be able to use almost immediately, with the idea that they will then learn more advanced features (the advanced options seem pretty limitless). I can believe this. It looks easy enough to get started and if software is usable from the start it is easy to dig in and teach yourself more advanced uses.
I would be remiss in not mentioning the web site design here as well. It is one of the best software product pages I have seen simply because it demos the product in a number of sleek videos. In fact, the product tour helps to erase the abstract qualities of the text descriptions. After watching the video it is crystal clear what this software does and how the graphics look and move. This is essential to capturing the section of the market with no experience but a desire to learn about 3-D animation. This tour video is supplemented by others around the site that show working animations, screenshots, and videos of the workflow. These features go beyond what any text description could relay and probably convince many visitors to jump in and buy the product. Amazing stuff.
Check Swift out here:
http://www.erain.com/Products/swift3d/
In contrast, Swish Max3, a similar product, has a standard web page with bulleted descriptions of the software features. This is common, but having just looked at the Swift website I would choose that software over Swish because I could see how it worked. The dynamic samples on the Swish website of different effects that can be created in Swish did help to make the software purpose clearer, but the lack of audio descriptions still means the Swift web software wins out. These small animations could not compete with the full-fledged tour of the Swift product. That said, the features included with Swish seem as equally geared to a range of abilities as those of Swift, with preset multimedia effects and ready-made vector shapes all the way to scripting languages for advanced users. The prices for the two software packages are about the same as well. I just am not sure if the Swish software is as user-friendly as the Swift interface appears to be. That said, both seem to be powerful tools that could really make web sites, especially for games, movies, and high tech design, unique and interactive.
Check out Swish here:
http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area=home
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