Day 14: SXSW, Angela's Notes Concluded
Rich Interactive Experience
Speaker Josh Ulm (The Remedi Project)
What are the benefits of a Flash development platform, and how do you talk to a client about it? Flash MX plug-in has 70% adoption after 1 year; Flash 5 has 95%. People really can see these animations.
Advantages of Flash MX
- Streaming video built-in; no separate QuickTime plug-in needed. Not as robust as QT or RealPlayer, but works well for short video clips.
- Video ability opens door for what doors we can open Flash up to. CD-ROMs typically had been done with Director, but now can be done with Flash.
- Reusablity of code much better with MX. Able to link to external files.
- Could now use ActionScript almost to the exclusion of the TimeLine. Good development platform.
- Have ability to control movies and EnterFrame objects. Easier with Flash MX to turn things on and off. Code below allows to stop an action.
onClipEvent(load) {
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
this._x += 10;
if (this._x >= 300) {
delete this.onEnterFrame;
}
}
}
Player/Piece structure model. Player component is manager. Sits and controls everything else that goes on. May be movie shell that does nothing; may contain code used by various pieces. Pieces are the content. Drop various pieces into the player. Nice to be able to separate pieces and allow other pieces to be edited separately. Also nice from a bandwidth standpoint -- user can download just the part the use. Don't spend time breaking down structure more than you need to, though.
Code below controlled scrolling playback of 2 objects. Control motion using ActionScript to give better control.
{obj:this.l_big, property:"_x", rate:-4.5, offset:-300}
{obj:this.l_small, property:"_x", rate:.5, offset:280}
How to start: What are the common/re-usable aspects of my movie? Start by coding those aspects. Then drop in other aspects. Prototype of movie can have text boxes indicating user could click here for such-and-such action.
Day 14: SXSW, concluded
The Seven Arms of Creativity
Carole Guevin (netdiver.net)
Tension is the enemy of creativity. When getting an assignment, absorb, don't start thinking about how yet. Make a list of 5 points.
Creativity is not a job, it's a mindset. It doesn't require a perfect time and place.
After absorbing, research, until you find the tread. Carole keeps calling audience members up to look at pictures for 5 seconds, then tell the audience what they saw.
Elimination process: Do mock ups, then start tweaking. Next is delivery. Constraints are a tool for delivering creativity. They set boundaries. Put aside your own tastes.
I have a handout with all her points. Whatever I miss right now, I'll go back and fill in later.
Q: How do you apply this to collaborative work?
The first idea is the best idea. If you don't have anything better to suggest, than shut up. Team leader has veto power.
Q: How do you get the whole group into this "7 Arms of Creativity" mindset?
Get everybody on the same page.
Accessibility: Building Virtual Curbcuts
Randolph Bias (University of Texas), Andrew Kirkpatrick (National Center for Accessible Media), Bob Regan (Macromedia), Sharron Rush, moderator (Knowbility)
Bias: The need for usability testing. Different people perceive things in different ways. Performance during testing may not be the same as normal performance. Developers are not awarded for usability.
Kirkpatrick: Captioning. Adding captions are good for deaf people, but it does not help them if they can't read, or the text is too small. Adding sign language can help.
Self-voicing: Applications that talk. It is necessary to offer both self-voicing and captions to support both deaf and blind.
MAGpie -- Media Access Generator. Free tool for creating captions, alternate text, etc.
Regan: Text equivalents for graphics & animations. How you caption the graphic depends on how it is used. He demonstrates the accessibility panel in Flash MX. Because screen readers do not support the description field, just use the name. "Don't look inside animation" will keep the screen reader from constantly refreshing the screen reader. You can script the accessibility options. Descriptions can be used to imply structure. Put site information in a separate button so the user doesn't have to hear the structure on each page. Provide context for the state of each control.
Keyboard short-cuts -- All embedded media will trap the tab key, so you can't tab out. Using Flash + JavaScript, you can do it. Tab order is crucial. Keep reading space small. Use script to set tab order.
What happened?
HTML-Kit is a wonderful free text editor. It's also a dangerous weapon in the hands of the not-so-bright. I was making use of my index.pl script, going through it, commenting out things I didn't need for what I wanted to use it for. Then, after working on a separate file, I hit the "Save All" button, and HTML-Kit did just what I asked -- it saved the script back to the server. Whoops.
