Class 02 – 03 Feb 2014

•Setup

•Where do we begin?

•Know your content

•Discovering your target user

Discovering your target user• Who are the users?• What are the users’ tasks and goals?• What are the users’ experience levels?• What functions do the users need?• What information might the users need, and in what form do

they need it?• How do users think it should work?• What are the extreme environments?• Is the user multitasking?• Does the interface utilize different types of interaction /inputs

modes such as touching, spoken, gestures, or orientation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-centered_design

Class 02 – 03 Feb 2014

•Software:

• For Mockups

• Image editing / formats

•Wait ins’t Flash dead?

•What about HTML5?

Discover your target userRealize your content

Defining personas can help define:

Goals

Capabilities

Context

Avoid "self referential design" and projecting your own ideals

into the design

Avoid feature bloat

Adobe Photoshop

•Mockups

•Image processing / Static Images

•Animation

•Optimization

Adobe Illustrator

•Mockups

•Vector graphics & SVG

•Print

Adobe InDesign

•Mockups

•Media Containers

•Print & Web

Adobe Flash

•Mockups

•Image processing / Static Images

•Animation

•Optimization

Adobe FLASH

•Isn’t Flash dead?

•What & Why?

•Where & When?

•What about HTML5?

Isn’t Flash dead?

http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/client_side_language/all

What & Why

From animation to programming.

We will cover areas such as, animation (communicating

with motion), interaction, design, concept development,

and programming with ActionScript.

We will start with learning the tools and making animation,

followed by some programming in Actionscript.

With the fundamentals learned from flash we will then

transition to Adobe EDGE to learn about implementing

creations for mobile devices.

Where & When?

Flash is a tool that can be used to combine many different

types of media into a single unified production.

Images, vector graphics, animation, video, sound, text, 3d

elements, complex user interaction, dynamic data...

Webpages, web apps, banner ads, video sites, games,

cartoons, interactive stories, art work, internet applications,

desktop applications, mobile apps, e-learning...

Dead?

Text heavy sites. Sites that need to be accessed with

mobile

phones. Sites that you want be indexed by Google...

2 RULES OF THUMB:

1. If it can be made just as well in HTML, maybe it

should be

2. Just because you can does not mean you should…

Dead?

Flash uses it’s own plug-in. The advantage of this has been that it is

easy to make sites look and act the same regardless of platform or

browser.

• Vector based. This can mean small files (but doesn’t always)

• Allows you to use many different types of media.

• Creates streaming content or fully downloaded client side

application.

• Has powerful Object Oriented programming interface AS3

(ActionScript 3)

• Very diverse tool. Can create many different types of productions.

Dead?

Why NOT Flash?

• Plug-in. Not supported by many new devices.

• Runs slow (with a twist) on many devices that do

support it.

• Not very accessible.

• Not easy for search engines to index content.

• HTML5 is proving to be an excellent alternative to

Flash in many areas.

Previous students

How have previous students used Flash?

• Websites and portfolio presentations

• Games

• Interactive stories

• Video sites

• E-learning

• Music mixers

• The sky is the limit (typically time and money :P)

For next week

Get familiar with:

• Navigating the Stage

• Creating and using layers.

• Create various objects having a stroke and fill.

• Using the basic tools such as, selection, circle, square.

• Working with color.

• Selecting, moving and manipulating objects on the stage.

• See what you can create in 30 minutes or less to share

with the class.