[Sigia-l] Re: flash-based applications (examples ... more)

[alex wright]

> I would love to hear the pros and cons of using Flash MX as a
front-end
> for future web-based app design instead of HTML. Any opinions out
there?


My company, Postio, is developing a personal communications tool in
Flash MX, combining a desktop GUI-like mail client (think Outlook) with
real-time messaging tools (like instant messaging, videophone).

Let me preface this by making an ironic admission: as the lead product
designer for a commercial Flash application, I rarely ever actually
touch Flash.  My role as a user experience architect is still ultimately
about specification, not implementation (and the awful truth is that I
still spend a lot of time in Word and Visio).

That said, I have been exposed to plenty of the weird realities of Flash
development over the past few months.  Here's my take:

Pros:

- Abandoning the underlying document metaphor inherent in HTML Web
design.  Flash lets you create real session states within a client-side
runtime environment (i.e., the Flash player)

- Pre-packaged UI components provide useful building blocks for cobbling
together screen-level interface elements (a la Visual Basic).

- Performance.  Minimal latency, much better use of network/server
resources.

- Bells & whistles.  Skip intro movies aside, Flash Communications
Server has all kinds of nifty real-time collaboration and rich media
features like A/V, chat, and collaborative presentation tools.

Cons:

- First, there's the small matter of programming in Flash.  Developing
application logic in Flash requires object-oriented programming with
ActionScript.  This is not scripting, it's programming.

- From a UI designer's perspective, Flash's "stage" metaphor just
doesn't make sense in the context of OO application development; in our
case, our entire application runs within a single frame - and most of
our code was actually authored outside of Flash itself (in Dreamweaver,
of all things, because it has a better text editor).

- Flash is still a relatively immature and nuanced environment, with
lots of weird kinks - suitable for "craft programming" style projects
with small teams willing to invest time in trial and error, not well
suited for the "brute force" programming style of large scale app dev
projects.

- Flash is an ok but not great tool for UI prototyping; on the front
end, it is still more of an animator's tool.

If anyone out there is interested in seeing out what our application
actually looks like, feel free to request a beta account by sending a
note to beta at postio.com.


regards,
alex
---------------
alex wright
alex at agwright.com | www.agwright.com