| Flash Application Design Solutions shows you how to harness the power of ActionScript 2.0 and make the most of the improved design tools of Flash 8 to create usable, intuitive Flash interfaces.
In this book, you'll find a number of concrete Flash usability solutions that use elements such as navigation menus, data filtering, forms, content loaders, Flash liquid layouts, help tips, and many other features. You'll learn how each of these solutions actually improves on what is possible with HTML and JavaScript. In each case, you'll see how users interact with the website feature, and how it gives users the most intuitive, enjoyable experience possible while using your application. You'll get a step-by-step analysis of how to program and build each solution, and how to make it scalable, maintainable, and reusable.
The book concludes with a case study that showcases the solutions developed in the previous chapters, all working together in a single application. This example puts all the pieces together and highlights just how, with some thought and consideration, Flash can improve usability on the Web.
This book is essential reading for all Flash designers and developers, from beginners seeking valid solutions to veteran Flashers looking for a fresh perspective on application design, interaction, and reusability.
About The Authors
Ka Wai Cheung has been creating web applications ever since he was a child (he was still a child at 19). He currently leads the user interaction design of Gritwire (www.gritwire.com), a Flash-based RSS reader and social network for daily Internet users.
Ka Wai has written for several online publications and resource sites, including Digital Web Magazine (www.digital-web.com), ActionScript.org (www.actionscript.org), and HOW design online (www.howdesign.com). He writes about topics from web standards to usability design to software development theory, but his main passion is Flash application development. He logs his past web projects and writings on his site, Project99 (www.project99.tv).
Craig Bryant is a full-time Flash engineer who has been advocating the use of Flash in delivering rich Internet applications to topranked online communications agencies around the world for the past five years. Currently, Craig is a Senior Art Director at Arc Worldwide in Chicago.
Craig’s devotion to Flash has driven his creative intrigue, while providing him with a technical expertise and perspective that only a Flash developer can attain. |
