Found an amazing site today, We Feel Fine. It’s both very beautiful and very compelling. It’s like I’m getting a small insight to the human race and it feels odd.
See what you think.
steelso :: Aug.03.2006 :: Cool, Flash, Social Networks, Web 2.0 :: 4 Comments »
Great personality quiz on-line that’s really well executed. Good, simple use of Flash to allow data entry.
steelso :: Aug.03.2006 :: Cool, Flash, Thoughts :: 3 Comments »
[TAG]Adobe[/TAG] launched [TAG]Flex 2[/TAG] today and we’re very excited about the potential for creating fantastic, intuitive [TAG]Internet experiences[/TAG]. Marc has been already working with the beta software and created a great little application that we’ll be using for a client shortly. The fruits of that will be displayed as soon as possible.
With Flex looking good and using various [TAG]ajax development[/TAG] tools the future looks bright. What does this fancy chat mean for you? An Internet experience that helps you get to your information faster. It’s all looking good.
steelso :: Jun.28.2006 :: Clients, Cool, Flash, Rich Internet Applications, Thoughts, biscuitmedia, biscuitmedia web design :: No Comments »
And so do I.
It’s proving that ‘Jesus Loves Porn Stars‘ is a difficult phrase to sell. It’s a great looking website and some of the content is amazing. It opened our eyes to Dave the Horn Guy and the ‘Perversion for Profit’ videos. Class.
Amazingly the American Bible Association don’t want to print these bibles. While I’m probably not heading for a Porn Free 2006 I accept these guys going for it in a fresh way.
steelso :: Apr.05.2006 :: Flash, People, Social, Thoughts, Video :: 4 Comments »
Well we got our nice mention in the Drum, you can have a wee look at what the said about the GFO website and let us know if you agree or disagree.
I also was quoted in the Do’s and Don’t section. What pearls of wisdom fell from my keyboard? Well, what was printed was….
Do Have Fun. Online is probably the best place to have fun with your brand. That’s not about breaking brand conventions, just stretching them a little to engage a little.
and this little gem….
Don’t make people think. Thinking doesn’t really go down well on the Internet. If you give your users an option to do something then make sure it’s clear, concise and explain the benefits.
As in some kind of director’s cut DVD extra type thing I will also show you what was dropped from the final edit…
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you’re taking a process online then make sure that you’ve mapped a similar off-line process to ensure that the experience is the same. This will help users orientate themselves to the process. Worst offenders? Restaurant booking websites that ask for your personal information first before giving you an option to find out if your table is free. Not one restaurant asks for that in the real world, why do it on-line? Monkeys.
Ricky’s deffo tip was dropped too. It’s still better than what I wrote…
Immediate impact means a lot, but the subtle difference of web design to traditional printed media is trying to try to think about how you get the user to the content quickly and effortlessly. It’s all about their time online and how to get them to where they want to be as quickly as possible. I suppose it’s similar to a magazine front cover and a contents page rolled into one- it has to appeal- but it has to concisely inform too. A website which is time-consuming to navigate is like a magazine with the pages glued together- frustrating.
Remember, nobody’s got any patience when they’re online- they’re full of Web-Rage.
I know I am.
Thanks to the Drum judges for their kind words.
I like posting at lunch, it feels so self indulgent.
Had a good look at Studio 8 and so far I’m kind of under whelmed, esp Dreamweaver. Admitally I’m not the guy who uses it all day, everyday but I am looking forward to getting stuck into a project to see if it does make life easier. Jamie will be diving into Flash Pro soon and I’m sure he’ll be posting away about it. I’m excited about the mobile authoring environment for Flash so it’s going to get sweet, quickly.
A good week here, the Visible Fictions sat-site is looking good and we’re just awaiting content, the Mono website proceeds apace and I have nice chat with Langs tomorrow to go over content and video scripts.
Off to a cheeky wee networking thing to night in Glasgow’s stylish Marriot Hotel. The guy who started Yo! Sushi is doing a wee talk about stuff. I’m really selling this isn’t I! It’ll be good and Tracey is going too, minus her wee clockwork motor. I am looking forward to it and it doesn’t run on for long. I hope.
Next week, apart from all the usual stuff we’re getting re-doing out homepage and also thinking about adding additional content. If you have any thoughts, hints, tips or suggestions then let us know.
steelso :: Sep.15.2005 :: Flash, People, Social, biscuitmedia web design :: 1 Comment »
It’s been raining heavily for the first time in ages here in Sunny Glasgow (the Miami of the North I was recently told). Normally rain doesn’t bother me but it does when it starts seeping into my shoes. Time to buy new shoes. Joyous.
Busy at work, showing a new design for a dating website that we’re building for a client and, as always, Ricky’s done a first class job. It’s looking very polished at this stage and I can’t wait to show the client tomorrow the first draft of the design.
Other stuff since I last blogged includes Macromedia annoucing the release of their latest software suite, Studio 8. I’m sort of so-so about it which is odd for me coming from a pro Macromedia kind of place. I’m not sure what it is that’s making me so-so. Some of the features in Dreamweaver will be helpful and should’ve been done some time ago (background FTP will be hugely welcomed) but I don’t see any huge leaps in usability in the software. Of course I’ve not got stuck in so I’m reserving judgement until I get it next month.
Interested in the advances that the Flash player is going through but, apart from a couple of things, I’m left scratching my head at some of the additions to the player such as being able to put a motion blur on items, photoshop type filters, etc. Performance gains within the player are welcomed but I really want to see what the community does with all these fancy new filters that actually improve the experience of being on the web. With some of the changes I’m a bit feart of seeing Flash being thought of again as the thing that you have to click on ‘Skip Intro’ to avoid. I’m sure I’m being a little nippy about it. Looking forward to seeing the new video codec in action as well as being to upload files in Flash.
Sweet Jesus, I’ve used more jargon there than in the last month. You can tell I’m tired.
I have a small mountain of expenses to collect from biscuitmedia and have decided to treat myself. But to what? Well it’s either a new Ipod with a speaker system thing or a PSP. I’m leaning to the side of the Ipod with the cool speaker system that either Bose or Altec system thing for the house as my amp was destroyed by the little pigs. Frubes and Wharfdales amps do not make good bedfellows…
I do want a PSP, I’m interested how the PSP and the inevitable video ipod will change the way that video is delivered to you. I think that’ll porn will be the first to capitilise on the new way that you can view video but then I can’t waait to see if , for example, the BBC will create 10 minute news downloads that you can dump onot your device that you can then view on the bus, train, whatever. I’d so it, more interesting than Metro. We’ll see. Anyway, I’m weaning myself of the PSP idea.
I did however pre-order my Xbox 360 Deluxe package. Firstly because I want one one and secondly because I’m a deluxe slut. I would buy two gallons of rancid milk as long as the stinking paper bag it was held in was marked ‘Deluxe’ in big gold letters. Or small silver letters, it’s not the presentation, it’s the word.
Sites to go to. King Danny I has a great website and I would urge you to join his country. A great website, well thought out, designed and funny. The national anthem is brilliant but I wish it was a easily downloadable MP3. Actually as a citizen I demand it! Noam Chomsky’s involved, it must be good!
Well, crazy day tomorrow, working on Saturday morning, playing Power Rangers on Saturday afternoon, Justice League Sunday (I have it on expert authority that Wonder Woman’s power is actually wondering about being a super hero) then off to see a wee film Sunday night with some old and new friends. All go, all good.
Excuse the spelling, grammar, it’s late and I’m sleepy headed.
Take care of yourselves
And each other.
*wink*
S
steelso :: Aug.19.2005 :: Flash, People, Social, Thoughts, Video, biscuitmedia, new clients :: 4 Comments »
Got the nod today for a redesign for one of our current clients, Langs. Going to be very interesting as we like the current design so how do we improve on work that we like? Usually we’re brought in to sort out dreadful designs. This is going to be a great one to do again. This is all part of the strategy that we put in place with Langs two years ago and we’re delighted that they’ve stuck with us on the strategy and that the forward thinking nature of Langs has proved to increase the bottom line of their business.
We’re also going to use video in this website. That too is going to be interesting. Video on websites is going to be the next big thing but is also going to be the most difficult thing to get right. We’re used to professional standards and if the tone of the video isn’t right it’s going to be the biggest turn off. Esp. as we’re using the video as a selling tool rather than a way to easily explain difficult concepts.
It’s going to be a challenge. That’s what Team Biscuitmedia are up for.
Ta,
S
steelso :: Jul.26.2005 :: Flash, Video, biscuitmedia, new clients :: 7 Comments »
Allan and Jamie have both mentioned the Flex application that we created for our client, Glasgow Film Office. It’s was our first delve into the world of Rich Internet Applications and Allan did an outstanding job getting to grips with it. It was a very interesting process for both designers and developers to get their heads around, mostly due to the amazing flexibility within the Flex framework.
But wait! What the hell is a Rich Internet thingie? Flex? You promised no jargon Steelso. Ok, ok…
Rich Internet Applications (RIA’s) is a method of making complex things simple. The web was designed initially to retrieve documents so as time has run on the demands on what can be done within a basic webpage have been pushed. Complex interactions are not best suited to the web. Imagine that you needed to use Excel and you could only use it on the web. Imagine that every time that you entered a number or a calculation that the page had to refresh before you got the result of your query. Imagine doing that 10, 20, 100times. It would turn you to drink!
What RIA’s do is try to make complicated interaction with a webpage easier. Imagine, if you will that you’re booking your flight with Easyjet. Imagine now that rather than clicking from page to page that you could do it all on one page, no click to the next page, no waiting, it feels like software in your browser. That’s a RIA. Have a look at this shopping cart example.
The shopping cart example is cool, it lets you change the view of the page, choose your price bracket, drag and drop items into the checkout area. And not once does it appear to go to page to page to page.
So what?
Well the less you have to click and wait for the impact of your click to have effect the more likely that you are going to stay on the website and achieve a goal. The experience becomes better, richer.
There are a number of ways to produce RIA’s. This is the presentation layer of the RIA. We’ve decided to jump in with Flex but other RIA’s are created using other technologies. Each have their merits, each have their nippy bits. We like Flex.
The application that we created for the GFO was a locations database. It was a big old beast of an app when we originally built it, the HTML process was about 10-12 pages. However it worked but it was difficult and tricky to try and work out just what was going on when and where.
When the GFO website was being redesigned it was agreed that we wanted to make the locations open to the public but it couldn’t work the way it was now, it was just to complicated. So how did we start?
Tune in next time as I go into the challenge of shifting mindsets and explaining how things work to people who don’t know how things work.
Cheers,
Stewart
steelso :: Jul.25.2005 :: Flash, Rich Internet Applications, biscuitmedia :: 1 Comment »
