Interaction Design, Technology, Visual Design, Web Development, Flash, Full-screen mode

Flash Full-Screen Mode April 7th, 2010

The release of Flash Player 9 has given Flash Developers the ability to view the Flash in full-screen mode, whether it be a movie or the Flash Animation itself. Here are two great examples of Web sites utilizing the full-screen mode to display something other than a movie: Nicola Walbeck and Waterlife. On a large monitor, the experience of a full-screen mode is something very engaging and eye-catching, at a quick glance, people can easily mistake it as a screen saver.
There are pros and cons when considering full-screen mode:

Application Development, Technology, Web Development, AS3, Flash, iPhone

Flash on the iPhone March 31st, 2010

Ever since the first release of the iPhone, people have been eagerly wondering when Apple would provide a Flash plug-in. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought the iPhone would be the perfect platform for the interactive nature of Flash.

From this article a while back, it seemed it would never happen because of Apple’s licensing issues about third-party applications, which dismayed many Flash Developers.  It appeared the only way to develop iPhone Apps was to download the software development kit and learn Objective- C.

Much has changed since then….

Interaction Design, Technology, Web Development, Flash

Flash Beyond the Web February 17th, 2010

Adobe Flash was developed to be an interactive platform. For the longest time, we’ve seen it mostly on the web, whether for aesthetic animation purposes or to provide rich interactivity. This YouTube video provides a glimpse into the future use of Flash as a way to create a “Living Surface” that steps out of the web and into the real world.

Although the video provides little background information, a little Googling reveals that it was developed in an ActionScript framework known as FIVe3D that was developed by Mathieu Badimon. You can see other exmaples on the FIVe3D website

Just imagine the possibilities: interactive walkways at the mall where shoppers can interact with storefront displays just by walking in front of them, or play areas that interact with children as they hop and run around.

Technology, Flash

Flash CS5 and Multi-Touch November 10th, 2009

Has anyone seen the movie “Minority Report”? In it Tom Cruise plays a cop of the future who uses a computer that is touch screen based and voice activated. The vision of this futuristic computer shows the obsolescence of the keyboard. The level of interaction that is possible using a virtual touch screen is visually stunning. This isn’t anything new since Microsoft’s Surface has been around for a little while, but what’s new is that with the latest release of CS5, Flash will now support multi-touch and open the doors to a new level of interaction with Flash.

Inside RIA has a great primer for it: http://www.insideria.com/2009/10/getting-started-with-multitouc.html.

Web Content Management, Web Development, Flash, Video

Flash and Flash Video June 30th, 2009

I have this question asked to me atleast once a week: what’s the difference between Flash and Flash Video, or do you need Flash to play a Flash Video. I found a nice article that articulates the difference.

“The thing most users don’t understand is the difference between Flash and Flash Video. Flash is the interactive part of the process, which allows the creation of the player that is designed to interactively manipulate the video: stop, fast-forward, rewind, etc.

Flash Video on the other hand, is just the video file that the Flash SWF file plays, using the Flash Player. SWF files may include video content that has been imported from FLV or F4V files, or may merely reference external FLV/F4V video files which the SWF file will play back at certain pre-defined or user-input intervals.”

Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Visual Design, Flash

Best Flash Site Ever? July 15th, 2008

Have you seen this site? It’s a listing of what Netmag believes are the 20 best Flash sites ever. Number one was Vodafone’s Future Site. For a site that was launched back in 2003 (5 years ago is an eternity in the Web world), it’s quite impressive even by today’s standards. What do you think are some of the best Flash sites around today? What would you say is your all time best Flash site ever?