#13668
Those succeeding with Flash usually apply it as an element and mix it with other technologies or images such as streaming audio and video, GIF, JPG, DHTML, and CGI to name a few. Determine what elements you need on your site and study the strengths and weaknesses of each technology to determine which option would work best for each element. You're in good shape if you can use Flash without sacrificing accessibility, readability, navigability, usability, searchability, and ability to update.
Evans, Meryl K. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Accessibility>Multimedia>Web Design
#11866
Although multimedia has its role on the Web, current Flash technology tends to discourage usability for three reasons: it makes bad design more likely, it breaks with the Web's fundamental interaction style, and it consumes resources that would be better spent enhancing a site's core value.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#24488
Flash movies stream, so when the Flash movie contains several frames or scenes, the movie should be preloaded so that it will play back smoothly. Let's set up the animation that will play while the main movie (the presentation from a previous lesson) is loading behind the scenes. We'll create a movie clip for the preloader animation.
Berg, Debbie. WebDeb (2002). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#24490
Want to load one movie at a time into a main movie? With Flash MX, you can load a SWF or JPEG file into the Flash Player while the original movie is playing. The loadMovie action lets you display several movies at once and switch between movies without loading another HTML document or a separate Flash movie.
Berg, Debbie. WebDeb (2003). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#28484
Generate Flash Movies on the Fly with PHP
Rich Internet Applications is the new buzz-phrase for Web 2.0, and a key component of the substance behind Web 2.0 is Adobe Flash. Learn how to integrate Flash movies into your application and generate Flash movies dynamically using the Ming library.
Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#28340
Graphics, Images, and Multimedia 
Graphics are used on many, if not most, Web pages. When used appropriately, graphics can facilitate learning. An important image to show on most pages of a site is the organization's logo. When used appropriately, images, animation, video, and audio can add tremendous value to a Web site. When animation is used appropriately, it is a good idea to introduce the animation before it begins.
Usability.gov (2006). Design>Web Design>Multimedia
#20836
Guidelines for Multimedia on the Web
Multimedia is gaining popularity on the Web with several technologies to support use of animation, video, and audio to supplement the traditional media of text and images. These new media provide more design options but also require design discipline. Unconstrained use of multimedia results in user interfaces that confuse users and make it harder for them to understand the information. Not every webpage needs to bombard the user with the equivalent of Times Square in impressions and movement.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1995). Design>Multimedia>Web Design
#22425
HTML+TIME Transitions in Internet Explorer 6
The inline transitions that Internet Explorer 6 supports are based on the latest SMIL 2.0 specification. In the HTML+TIME world, they are implemented with the use of a t:transitionfilter element. The implementation is a bit early and the browser is in beta so things can always change. But this introductory set of transitions will add a bit more punch to the HTML+TIME framework.
Kennedy, Tim. Streaming Media World (2001). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>SMIL
#10643
The Interactive Development Process
This is a very simple introduction to a development process that has been developed over years of work at vivid studios. It started out as a book, developed for Apple Computer's Multimedia Developer's Program, entitled, Multimedia Demystified. This book covers the general development process in some detail. As both the process itself and our application of it to online media have evolved, we have refined this process to what you see above. This, of course, is a fairly shallow explanation of it.
Shedroff, Nathan. nathan.com (1997). Design>Web Design>Multimedia
#22428
Some day, Internet historians will ponder the developments of the year 2000. They will look back and argue who won and who lost the battles of the multimedia browser war.
Kennedy, Tim. Streaming Media World (2001). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>SMIL
#19317
The convergence of the web and television throws up numerous challenges for usability engineers. As more and more of the population choose to access the Internet through their television (usually via set-top boxes and with the assistance of television remote controls), optimizing web pages for use on these devices becomes a priority. These issues tend to be exacerbated by inherent differences between the two technologies. For instance, television is usually thought of as 'lean-back' technology, whereas the computer is seen as 'lean-forward' technology. Television viewers on average sit more than 9 feet away from their sets, whereas computer users are usually within 13 inches of their monitors. Television viewers are accustomed to being passive and having information presented to them. Computer use requires more active interaction and maximizes user initiative. It is possible that the fundamental conflict between these modes of operation will mean that web-on-television is doomed to failure. But, in the meantime, what can be done to ensure high quality user-experience when viewing the web on TV?
Gaine, Frank. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Web Browsers
#22430
On this website are some examples of SMIL, a language like HTML, where with a simple text editor, anybody in the world can communicate their ideas as effectively as a Television commercial. SMIL 1.0 allows you to create the areas for media objects and then determine when to play them. SMIL 2.0 adds interactivity, transitions. XHTML + SMIL give SMIL 2.0 abilities to XHTML elements.
Ramirez, Jose. EmpireNet (1999). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>SMIL
#19123
Low-End Media for User Empowerment
Fancy media on websites typically fails user testing. Simple text and clear photos not only communicate better with users, they also enhance users' feeling of control and thus support the Web's mission as an instant gratification environment.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Usability
#23061
Macromedia Flash: A New Hope for Web Applications
Some new, cutting-edge applications have demonstrated Flash's potential to surpass the power of traditional software applications. These web applications leverage the strengths of Flash to help users make better sense of large amounts of data, presenting information in an easily accessible, graphical visual representation. In this white paper, we will explore how Flash can help developers easily build the next generation of web applications. We will also look at several new applications that have recently appeared on the scene and talk about how they leverage the benefits of Flash.
Perfetti, Christine and Jared M. Spool. User Interface Engineering (2004). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#20562
Macromedia Flash is primarily an animation development application. Its feature-set includes such things as vector-based drawing, Web animations and interactive effects. Drawing is required for animation, which in turn is part of interactive effects.
Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions (2002). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#20606
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of computing technology is the ability to combine text, graphics, sounds, and moving images in meaningful ways. The promise of multimedia has been slow to reach the Web because of bandwidth limitations, but each day brings new solutions. Although there are numerous methods for creating Web multimedia, we recommend using stable technology that works for the great majority of client machines. Plug-ins that extend the capabilities of your Web pages are a mixed blessing. You risk losing your audience if you require them to jump through hoops to view your content.
Lynch, Patrick J. and Sarah Horton. Yale University (1999). Design>Web Design>Multimedia
#25980
On-Demand Access to Rich Media Assets
The maturation of digital asset management technology and products has enabled on-demand DAM services to emerge as an attractive alternative to on-premises installation. Organizations facing a variety of problems and constraints, such as speed to market and scalability, are finding software services models to be the most cost effective approach to digital asset management. This paper identifies the four key factors in making the decision between a services model and on-premises installation. It also argues that the decision should be analyzed in terms of discounted cash flows and presents examples of such calculations.
Zoellick, Bill. Gilbane Report (2004). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#23955
Il est devenu de bon ton de parler de contenus 'dynamiques'. Que veut-on dire par là au juste? En fait, la notion de 'contenus dynamiques' peut couvrir plusieurs acceptions.
Redaction (2004). Articles>Multimedia>Web Design
#23954
Basé quasiment exclusivement sur le texte à ses débuts, Internet est devenu aujourd'hui un moyen d'expression multimédia, permettant d'intégrer tout autant des textes que des images, des vidéos, des sons , des animations, des programmes interactifs, etc. Ecrire pour Internet, c'est donc exploiter plusieurs supports d'expression.
Redaction (2004). Articles>Multimedia>Web Design>Writing
#28706
Semantic Flash: Slippery When Wet
There's a belief within the web standards community that Flash is part of a different world. While all approaches have limitations and drawbacks, Flash has been scorned to the point that many refuse to acknowledge its benefits. Ultimately, this has led to the creation of a virtual separation among web designers; those who use Flash use it exclusively (leading to a saturation of full-screen, 'Skip Intro'-rich Flash sites on the web) and those who don't ever give it a second thought. Although the brilliant option of the hybrid (part Flash, part HTML) site had always existed, it's never really made it far past the typical Flash intro on a corporate homepage. Throughout the history of Flash on the web, the technology has always been intended to be embedded within HTML. Yet it has often seemed a foreign concept to use the two technologies to complement one another.
Mall, Dan. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#22427
What if you wanted your Web page to give a visual presentation of rotating graphics and text? You could create a massive animated GIF and let it do its work. Or you could create a RealPix and RealText presentation using RealPlayer. Or, with the SMIL power of HTML+TIME, you could do the same in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Kennedy, Tim. Streaming Media World (2001). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>SMIL
#22429
This tutorial will help you learning the language and creating your first SMIL presentations, through a step-by-step training.
Helio (1999). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>SMIL
#18672
Strategies of Influence for Interaction Designers
Unless you have the power to make business and development decisions for your project, some of your energy will be spent influencing those who do. Experienced usability engineers or interaction designers may have limited skill in influence, despite how significantly it can effect their ability to contribute to projects. It’s the smartest and most effective designers that work to understand the human to human interaction within their project teams, as part of their work towards better human to computer interaction.
Berkun, Scott. UIWeb (2001). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>Multimedia
#10288
Streaming media is a method for delivering multimedia content, where video, audio, graphics, and animation can all play simultaneous roles in the presentation.
The advantage of streaming media is that you can start viewing the presentation almost immediately while the file itself is still being sent from the server; there is no waiting period while all the component files are first downloaded to your hard drive. When the presentation is over, none of the component files remain on your computer.
Dereg, Tim. Orange Journal, The (2001). Design>Web Design>Streaming>Multimedia
#26932
The Studio for New Media is an interdisciplinary research institute organized to support, further, and coordinate work with digital media.
Studio for New Media. Organizations>Web Design>Multimedia>Iowa
