FLASH OVERVIEW ( online proofing )

Online proofing

Believe it or not, many people still harbor serious concerns about integrating Flash into their web strategy. Countless implementations of poorly created Flash intros, confusing Flash interfaces, and long download times have taught far too many users, and prospective clients, to fear the Flash experience. Despite this misconception, Flash is perhaps the most flexible technology for creating interactive experiences.
This flexibility can be a Flash designer’s greatest asset and also his worse liability.

Flash is the only tool that gives designers total control over audio, video, animation, and lightweight graphics for the Web—which means the possibilities of a designed experience are endless. Flash has groundbreaking new features that enable designers to not only craft tasteful motion design sequences, but also integrate animation that supports the content in an inspiring and meaningful way. Flash is now a widely
accepted application development tool, which means usability standards have been developed and adapted for the Flash experience. Plus, when optimized correctly, Flash sites cache and load much faster (up to 5 or 10 times faster) than an equalsized HTML site.

And that’s where this book comes in. On the pages that follow are innumerable techniques from experienced interactive designers for creating professional Flash sites that look fantastic and work like a charm. With this new volume in your Flash knowledge arsenal, you’ll help the haters embrace Flash for what it is today, instead of what it has often been in the past.

Why Flash?

Flash is a tool for those who want to expand the idea of a website into a web experience. HTML does offer some options that are better alternatives to that of Flash for certain target audiences. For instance, it is often going to be a good idea to use an HTML display option for a text-heavy site or in the case where accessibility for users with visual impairments is a concern. But exceptions to this rule and many other conventional standards are always emerging. Go to linkdup.com or thefwa.com on any day and see for yourself that the ingenuity and creativity of the Flash community are constantly pushing the boundaries and solving the problems of Flash experiences.

From the user perspective

As much as Flash can hinder usability, it can also enhance it. With the right combination of Flash component sets, object-oriented programming, and design production, and understanding on the part of the designer, any Flash project can be far more intuitive than its HTML-based counterparts.

We can all remember at least one time we visited a Flash site and thought, “Wow.” But we might be hard pressed to reflect on the same feeling with regard to a non-Flash site. This is because tasteful Flash sites are more meaningful to the user when compared to other sites of the same caliber. The “sit-back” viewing experience is just as valuable as the “lean-forward” clicking experience, and Flash makes them both happen simultaneously.

Nobody likes to wait. Regardless of whether it’s in a line at the post office (what’s that?) or in the comfort of your home office, all of us, and the users we design for, would rather be doing anything else. Once again, Flash saves the day. Not only do vector-based graphics in Flash download quicker than conventional bitmap graphics on HTML-based sites, but it is also easy to send and receive data and content in a Flash interface without page refreshes in the browser window. Combine these factors with the way Flash has revolutionized the delivery of rich media content, and you get less waiting regardless of the type of online experience.

Gone are the days of hasty plug-in downloads and installs. FlashPlayer has an auto-update feature, which means it is painless and happens instantly. FlashPlayer is also ubiquitous across all measurable platforms. It has the highest adoption rate of any software platform to date. This ensures that your users see your site just as you intended it.

From the creator perspective

New tools in Flash make it extremely easy to perform complicated tasks. For non-ActionScript users, the Script Assistant is back to help with programming. Filters and blend modes mean less time optimizing bitmaps to work in Flash and more time to tweak the visual styling of your designs.

Drawing is much easier in this version, as well. The tools in Flash are becoming more like the tools designers are trained to use, like those found in Illustrator and Photoshop (see Figure 1-1). It is now possible to create photo-realistic illustrations and UI elements in Flash without importing any additional assets. More now than ever, drawing in Flash is much more rewarding, and designers can achieve higher-quality animated effects as well. Designers familiar with animation created in applications like After Effects are eager to create similar effects with the new filters and blend modes in Flash. In addition, CPU strain is less of a burden for motion sequences due to the new Bitmap Caching feature in the Property inspector.