I recently attended a meeting of the Chicago Flex group. Kevin Hoyt, the Adobe Flex Platform Evangelist was the guest speaker. He demonstrated using constraint-based layouts for Flex applications. He also recommended not merging the Flex Framework into your Flex projects, but loading it at runtime as an RSL (Runtime Shared Library). This makes your application smaller, and the Framework is cached by the Flash player, so it's a good practice that will benefit all Flex projects. There's a bunch of great (free!) video tutorials on the Adobe Developer website. You can find detailed instructions on loading the Framework as an RSL in the video titled: "Reducing the file size of your Flex application" from Day 5 - Architecture and Advanced topics.
Cheers!
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 October 2009 20:34 )
DUX Strategies
Written by Tom
"In the era of interactivity and user-created content, user experience is changing the very way we do business. There was a time in which digital technologies was just another asset of the enterprise, a tool used to execute strategy developed by management, and delivered to customers. That model has been flipped on its head. As we zoom past Web 2.0 into the realm of Web 3.0, customers are using technology to drive products, marketing and strategy.
If you are a user experience practitioner, it’s no longer enough to run usability tests or perform a heuristic review in isolation. By understanding the larger significance and opportunity they represent for the organization, you must become more of a business strategist.
If you are an executive, on the other hand, you must see user experience as something bigger than the where the buttons are on your web page. User experience is more than usability dressed up with some semantic flourish. It informs the most vital, strategic issues your organization will face. Organizations that fail to understand this will lose their way. But winning organizations will understand how and where users are interacting with them, will make that part of their user experience, and will put digital user experience at the core of their business strategy." --Jerome Nadel, CXO Human Factors, International
Last Updated ( Friday, 17 April 2009 09:43 )
UXD's First Product
Written by Tom
"While the first work product of programmers is a tentative solution to the user’s needs, the first work product of interaction designers is a narrative restatement of the problem being addressed.
These narrative descriptions of users and their goals are compelling stories primarily composed for managers and marketers. When these non-technical people read them, they can clearly see if their product and market ideas are viable.
An executive or marketer may not be able to look at a screen and judge whether what he sees is correct or not, but he will be able to read stories about real users and make that judgment.
This can prevent the entire team from heading down a blind alley."
