“My name is Squid Vicious and I’m a Flash-aholic. I’m not exactly sure when I first became addicted to the abuses and misuses of Flash as it was a subtle seduction. It started out with nothing more than a bloated demo here, an oblique navigational system there, but the next thing you know, I was building entire sites with the damn stuff whether it suited the job or not.”

“The JGenerator is the web server production application that can dynamically combine text, graphics, and sound to build rich Flash content. The JGenerator is a free alternative to and analog of the Macromedia Generator. It supports most of the Macromedia Generator features, uses the same data format, the same set of commands and emulates its behavior.”

“Book sales are a useful indicator of interest in a particular technology. In Amazon’s listing of the 30 most popular computer books for 2000, Flash occupies four slots, with the first Flash title in the 10th spot. Carla Bayha, computer book buyer at Borders, told me that ‘Flash was THE hottest topic last year and still is this year.’ I wanted to talk over the apparent popularity of Flash with someone who’s been following Flash for a while, and who is familiar with the designers/developers that use Flash just as they’ve used Macromedia’s Director. I found Bruce Epstein, O’Reilly editor and author of Director in a Nutshell and Lingo in a Nutshell and more recently, the editor of an upcoming book on ActionScript, Flash’s scripting language.”

“The use of Flash/Shockwave content on the web has become very widespread recently, and has led to a certain amount of controversy over its value. There are various usability issues in the use of Flash, as outlined in Jakob Nielsen’s report. Nielsen raises several valid points, but I feel that his assertion that Flash is 99% bad is misguided, assuming that the web consists entirely of corporate sites, and that Flash content is generally gratuitous animation in the form of intros or information delivery systems which could be better made in html.”

Damn! “My ITP MPS Thesis will be a prototype for a Flash driven Information Architecture visualization tool. The tool will function as an elegant and easy to use solution for the difficult task of mapping and documenting complex large-scale site architecture and functional specifications. Through the variable passing and expression building features of Flash 4.0, I will create a front-end experience that allows a user to build a customized interactive presentation without knowing anything about the Flash authoring environment. The prototype will be supported by documentation that will articulate the information architecture and functional specifications used in the development of the concept.”

“In Christian theology, it doesn’t matter exactly when you accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour. As long as you do it before you croak and ask forgiveness for your sins, you’re in like Flynn. This, apparently, is the Macromedia philosophy when it comes to accessibility.”

“Create the ultimate user experience with Macromedia Flash. Macromedia is working closely with the design and development community, and usability experts to provide suggestions we think will help you create highly engaging user-focused sites. Our goal is to empower the community to keep redefining what the Web can be and build cutting-edge sites that provide the best user experience.”

“Create Flash your momma can see.” A short presentation (with examples) by Juxt Interactive’s Creative Director Todd Purgason.

“AE-Shorts is a collection of digital experiments: a visual investigation and evolutionary process catalogued and recorded within a 3-Dimensional interface… Why: We think of shorts as research, helping us develop our skills by indulging our ideas about user interactivity, cycles of time, space, motion or texture. Shorts can take the form of interactive elements, allowing the user to manipulate visuals dynamically. Sometimes the shorts can simply play out a sequence without any interaction required from the user.”

“Hello, my name is Hillman Curtis. I believe the most attractive quality the web has to offer is its propensity for constant change. I believe the web is defined by a collective intelligence and cannot be dictated by any one person, group or set of ideas.”

“…90% [of web users] have the Flash plugin installed, however that statistic represents those who have the Flash 2 plugin installed, not the current Flash 4 plugin. (only 74% of users have that) Those who don’t have the latest version of the plugin installed will be treated to a movie lacking sound, advanced interaction (actionscript) and forms.”

“Marketing types often think of Flash as being a suitable medium for publishing what they vaguely call ‘high-impact’ web sites. While that term may look good on a press release, it doesn’t really explain in any practical terms what Flash does well. In order to determine whether or not our content suits the Flash medium, we need to plainly list Flash’s communication assets.”

“I do care about developing and providing solutions that augment the customer experience. The key for me is identifying and providing effective, high quality web sites. For me, usability is a huge part of the customer experience. I basically filter every article and email and news posting as either helping or harming the customer experience. In a nutshell, the general usability of web sites is important to me. That is why I am sick and tired of people telling that Flash is great…”

“The role of narrative in the Web experience is a pressing concern throughout the Web world, from entertainment to ecommerce. How can we manage the narrative experience in the presence of both interaction and animation? We hope to bring together a small group of leading writers, designers, and theoreticians to define (and extend) the state of the art in an intense weekend roundtable and workshop.” November 11-12, 2000 Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Fundacao Laramara