I have the Flex Builder Beta on my Mac. I have gone through all the tutorials. The team of developers I work with also have the Beta on the computers and have gone through the tutorials. I have demoed Flex to the Designers I work with and they seem impressed, if only because its seemingly powerful but not overly complex in how using drag and drop components you can quickly build apps that would have taken days in Flash. So basically, we are just waiting for the right job to come to build using Flex. Low risk, flexible timeline, an easy to work with client, etc. We currently don’t have anything like that in the queue right now, but I’m sure in a couple months or less, something will come in, and it’ll be time to give it a spin.

One thing I’m not quite sure about is how to have the UI designer go through the graphic design process with Flex as the final deliverable platform. Flash MX2004 introduced the v2 components, which completely changed how you design commmon UI elements, etc. I had a heck of a time getting my designers to feel comfortable using those components and assist skinning them, making sure they knew the constraints, etc. Finally, at Flash 8, we are regularly reskinning these components and the workflow seems pretty comfortable.

It looks like with Flex and Apollo things are going to be shaken up again. The components and skinning process operate much differently, and the MXML files are not seemingly somewhere you want a designer digging around in. Content/Presentation and logic are separated, which is great from my point of view, but a bit abstract for those coming from a timeline and library type of background. The concept of states and stacks vs. timelines and nested movie clips are just foreign enough to prove to be a bit of a impediment. I am starting to explore information out there on skinning Flex Components, I have played with the new Flex 2 style explorer, and the new (to me anyway) site ScaleNine look to be a cool way to start learning how themes/skins work.

How about developers/teams out there actively working on and designing Flex apps and UIs? Any tips or ideas on team integration? Workflows? Design comps and process? Do you concern yourselves with getting the designers up to speed on how the components work? Or do you just depend on your skills/know how to make whatever your designers think up come to life?

I have been working at The Iona Group since September of 2003. In that time we have had people come. We have gained new clients and moved into new markets. Of course some friends have left and we have decided to stop providing services to some clients as well, but all in all the first 3 years+ have been absolutely great. 2007 looks to be just as great. Here are some of the things I’m really looking forward to.

1. New Staff – We have some great production assistants and interns. They help out so much around the office and make my day so much better. In addition to them, we have a new developer starting in May. Here’s to hoping the trend continues!
2. Product Visualization - The Iona Group is weeks away from launching a 3-D product visualizer that is truly revolutionary. I’m psyched. My friend and co-worker RocketSeason and I spent much of 2006 on this puppy, and we can’t wait to get it up there for everyone to see. It’s for a big player out there, so there will definitely be some visibility. I’ll post here as soon as it is up.
3. Video on Demand/IPTV System – We are in the very beginning stages of creating a design/plan for a large scale installation video on demand system that will have thousands of clips in the library. These clips are going to be delivered over a LAN in a controlled environment and should offer a stellar user experience.
4. Our First Drupal 5 site – What can I say, I love this CMS. It’s so great to see it grow and mature into a real player in the CMS marketplace. I can actually feel confident in deploying Drupal based sites and know that they will be scalable and unique. With Drupal 5 addition of JQuery, better form building and the super hot new theming engine in it, I’m even more psyched.
5. Ektron CMS 400.Net 7 – This is a great CMS for when I need to firm up a Windows based web solution. This product is solid, well priced and really flexible. I wonder if WPF/WPE will be integrated into it… we’ll have to see.
6. A Major New Website Client - We are producing a very slick site for a major new client that integrates Flash, Ajax, Localization and ECommerce. The site should go live sometime in the 2nd Quarter. We have a bit to go, but all things are looking great. The site has definitely made me rethink my stance on RuzeeBorders and NiftyCorners… not too fond of those anymore.
7. Porting of a couple apps to Flex - We have a couple AS2.0 Flash7/8 Apps that will most likely need updates this year. We’ll probably port the code where possible to Flex. This should be pretty painless from my initial research, but who knows.

A very busy year indeed. Good thing that there are about 10 months left. I better get working.

I have been developing flash long enough to become jaded in regards to getting sent links to the newest hot Flash sites out there. Big deal. We have seen enough tweens and clever perspective tricks. Integrated video? How 2005. Blurs and dynamic dropshadows. *yawn* Granted, yes, the art is fantastic. The blurring of lines between video effects and Flash is awesome. But, the drawbacks have long been enough for me to say that a site should primarily be built with HTML and only have smatterings of Flash throughout it.

Where does this lack of enthusiasm come from? Partially from the fact that navigating a large monolithic 100% Flash based site is cumbersome. It’s impenetrable by search engines. It’s impossible to bookmark. Sending a URL for a specific screen/scene in a movie to a friend. Fuggeddabouddit.

Anyway… I’m starting to warm to the idea of some of the projects I have going at work because of some great new scripts coming out that allow us to get around some of those issues. The brilliant SWFObject was a great first step in solving the non-standard compliant “

I have a couple of projects currently inflight that will be deployed some time this quarter that will be using both of these libraries. I’m excited once again by the prospect of producing a Flash based site for a client. These scripts have freed me from my typical “killjoy” anti-flash stance by helping me be able to produce more accessible multimedia.