In a collaboration between Microsoft and Lynda.com, whether you're a developer or a designer you can get a head start on how to create Microsoft Silverlight applications.
Check out the Silverlight Video Tutorials and don't forget to show me what you've made.
Adobe has gone one step further with Flash already in their beta release of version 10. There's a lot of integrations that have been inserted which make Flash a very impressive platform.
The is a huge battle between Microsoft (Silverlight), Adobe (AIR, Flex, and Flash), JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails for developers to choose as their platform. Adobe has definitely positioned itself back up on the podium with it's newest features.
Flash now has native support for 3D which enables developers to make 3D effects on 2D objects. The screenshot below shows 2D mobile phone images that have been placed in a circle, tilted and told to rotate.
There is also the features of the Pixel Bender which enables you to perform image processing effects and filters. Check out some of the photos in the Pixel Bender Gallery to see what Pixel Bender is capable of. It's like having Photoshop image effects right in Photoshop.
I encourage you to check out Adobe Labs about Flash 10 for further details on the next version of Flash 10.
I'm making this a quote for others to remember and hopefully get it stuck into those who make user interfaces:
as soon as you need instructions, you fail
Dallas J Clark - 2007
I told this over and over to my multimedia students at WideBay TAFE all last year, and I believe it stuck into some peoples minds. Yes it is cool to show a different interface that is really different to others out there, but you're making a big risk in doing so.
The above image shows an interface that's pretty simple (and it still required instructions), but imagine if this was a full shopping cart system with 100's of products.
Some flash sites out there can be the most confusing, especially when they don't follow good design practices. Plain and simple, if you stick to the normal user interface principles, your users can enjoy the service and your users will be able to get the information they want from your site.
The worst thing you can do for your viewers is confuse them about how to use the site, they won't pursue to figure out how to use it, they will simply walk away.
I'm making this a quote for others to remember and hopefully get it stuck into those who make user interfaces:
as soon as you need instructions, you fail
Dallas J Clark - 2007
I told this over and over to my multimedia students at WideBay TAFE all last year, and I believe it stuck into some peoples minds. Yes it is cool to show a different interface that is really different to others out there, but you're making a big risk in doing so.
The above image shows an interface that's pretty simple (and it still required instructions), but imagine if this was a full shopping cart system with 100's of products.
Some flash sites out there can be the most confusing, especially when they don't follow good design practices. Plain and simple, if you stick to the normal user interface principles, your users can enjoy the service and your users will be able to get the information they want from your site.
The worst thing you can do for your viewers is confuse them about how to use the site, they won't pursue to figure out how to use it, they will simply walk away.
My friend from way back Daniel Sim just showed me something impressive that will shock the image editing market. Aviary is a collection of tools that are web based or as downloadable AIR applications.
Our tools all communicate and relate to each other. To illustrate an example: You can import a swatch from Toucan into Phoenix, while doing complex bitmap processing of a 3D object developed in Hummingbird. Finally, you can take your finished artwork and lay it out in Owl as the DVD artwork for a music CD you and your friends put together in Roc and Myna and offer it for sale in our marketplace, Hawk. Aviary
I recommend watching the video above showing them re-skin Hillary Clinton, more video examples can be shown found at http://a.viary.com/blog. To obtain use of the application, sign up to http://a.viary.com/'s early bird invitation.
They are developing applications to handle the majority of multimedia, from image editor, typography, music, 3d and video.
I've normally had to install some type of free software until today when I decided to search for a plugin for Adobe Photoshop. I found this 100% working plugin from Telegraphics, simply download and copy the file(s) to the right location (instructions in readme file) and walla.
Now you can start making icon (.ico) files in Adobe Photoshop!
Strategy #2
You can get some logo design packages really cheap, but is that how you want to come across to your customers?
A 13th century French poet pointed out in order to profit from mistakes, it is important to go out and make some. Unlikely that he had design in mind but it's true for every business which gets its designs right, there's another business which gets their designs wrong.
The market and web space are flooded with cheap packages to help you in all aspects of design. Some will give you total control on the end result, some are just partial and not worth the hassle.
Many companies that have had their designs produced by professional studios have been overwhelmed by what they've been able to produce. To begin with, it's all about communication, sit down and talk to your designer about your design preferences. Be honest about how you feel about your business and what you want your business image to look like tomorrow.
Most design studios are happy to provide you with choices; they'll develop 5 logos for you to review. Their design professionals will then develop and choose the perfect colours, fonts, layout, balance, and show you how you can apply your logo to different media and stationary.
Never be afraid to ask for advice with your logo, you're too close to your business and input from an objective outsider to your business can be refreshing and most importantly, an eye opener.
Your going to end up using your logo and designs for a while, so consider doing it correct from the start and consider asking your designer to develop an even more comprehensive set of logo options. The small cost is usually outweighed by the results.
All Strategies
1. Is your Company Literature up to scratch?
2. Your designs are cheap -> your business looks cheap.
3. How healthy are you?
Strategy #2
You can get some logo design packages really cheap, but is that how you want to come across to your customers?
A 13th century French poet pointed out in order to profit from mistakes, it is important to go out and make some. Unlikely that he had design in mind but it's true for every business which gets its designs right, there's another business which gets their designs wrong.
The market and web space are flooded with cheap packages to help you in all aspects of design. Some will give you total control on the end result, some are just partial and not worth the hassle.
Many companies that have had their designs produced by professional studios have been overwhelmed by what they've been able to produce. To begin with, it's all about communication, sit down and talk to your designer about your design preferences. Be honest about how you feel about your business and what you want your business image to look like tomorrow.
Most design studios are happy to provide you with choices; they'll develop 5 logos for you to review. Their design professionals will then develop and choose the perfect colours, fonts, layout, balance, and show you how you can apply your logo to different media and stationary.
Never be afraid to ask for advice with your logo, you're too close to your business and input from an objective outsider to your business can be refreshing and most importantly, an eye opener.
Your going to end up using your logo and designs for a while, so consider doing it correct from the start and consider asking your designer to develop an even more comprehensive set of logo options. The small cost is usually outweighed by the results.
All Strategies
1. Is your Company Literature up to scratch?
2. Your designs are cheap -> your business looks cheap.
3. How healthy are you?
One thing I've always stated with creating a design, interface and application -> keep it simple. Which is why sites like Twitter have taken off so much, because it doesn't require you to learn the interface, you simply use it and get addicted.
Tom Conrad (CTO of Pandora) used to work for Apple and has made the following quote about some of the different stages of simplicity Apple have taken until today:
- Apple II? Didn’t have switches on the front.
- Macintosh? No tape drive. No cursor keys.
- Next? No disk drive.
- iMac? No floppy drive.
- iPod? No on/off button.
- iPhone? No keyboard.
The iPhone is going to be the next big thing, Apple is looking at launching 1 million iPhones with more in the production queue. One quote I always use in my lectures is "if you viewers HAVE to learn or read instructions on how to use your application, then it fails."
Especially with our generation, we only look at manuals when we're stuck.
Scoble has created an excellent collection of Adobe product demos, if you want to get an idea of the software before you buy, it is definetely worth while checking out these links below:-
Adobe Premiere CS3 49 minutes.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 53 minutes.
Adobe Illustrator CS3 47 minutes.
Adobe Flash/Flex architecture overview 30 minutes.
Adobe Flex goes open source 25 minutes.
Adobe Flash CS3 overview 55 minutes.
Adobe Apollo overview 43 minutes.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 34 minutes.
Adobe Connect overview 29 minutes.
Adobe Acrobat 8.0 19 minutes.
Scoble has created an excellent collection of Adobe product demos, if you want to get an idea of the software before you buy, it is definetely worth while checking out these links below:-
Adobe Premiere CS3 49 minutes.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 53 minutes.
Adobe Illustrator CS3 47 minutes.
Adobe Flash/Flex architecture overview 30 minutes.
Adobe Flex goes open source 25 minutes.
Adobe Flash CS3 overview 55 minutes.
Adobe Apollo overview 43 minutes.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 34 minutes.
Adobe Connect overview 29 minutes.
Adobe Acrobat 8.0 19 minutes.
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