Macromedia Flash (tm): Art, Design + Function

by Mighty Assembly
published by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Buy it at Amazon.com.

Review by Todd Dominey |

Chances are between the bookstore and the internet there is a solution for every problem a Flash developer may face. From animation techniques to database interaction, game development and beyond, there is an overwhelming abundance of tutorials, walkthroughs and open source code ripe for the picking.

So much open source content has passed hands between web designers that many of today’s Flash built sites follow a imitable style, sound, and touch. The tricks of the Flash trade are well known, well documented, and copied to the hilt. Navigational widgets and spinning cubes simply don’t impress viewers anymore. To build memorable, original web sites that users will return to again and again requires planning, conceptualizing, a clear understanding of tone, style and narrative, and most importantly, originality.

Macromedia Flash: Art, Design + Function, written by interactive design studio Mighty Assembly, is the right book at the right time for anyone developing Flash content. The book provides an intriguing behind-the-scenes view of the development process of Mighty Assembly’s commercial web site from the earliest stages of development all the way through to the site’s launch and subsequent updates.

Amazingly, Mighty Assembly saved from their first and subsequent brainstorming sessions pages of their pencil and paper sketches, including random ideas, navigational concepts, and methods of interaction. Why reprint three chapters full of failed concepts and bad ideas? To stress a point—well-rounded design and solid execution are rooted in the investigation and experimentation performed before ever booting a computer. By avoiding the exploratory phase and diving right into the application (in this case Flash), a designer is usually left rudderless, and the output ultimately compromised. To imagine, and ultimately plan your direction before setting sail is by far the book’s strongest message.

Once Mighty Assembly found a general style, color palette and framework everyone could agree on, flow charts (also reprinted) were created to fully define the site’s structure from beginning to end. By taking the time to illustrate all the modules that would make up the design, Mighty Assembly saved development time, and was able to easily assign different pieces to the group for assembly. Finally, after weeks of sketching, work began on the site.

From here the book ventures from a creative, conceptual phase to a technical one. The site’s navigation, layered structure, sound objects, transitions, and video are dissected with sprinkles of source code and descriptive copy. Not only do the writers explain the solutions that worked for their own site, but they include nuggets of tips and techniques discovered along the way that can be applied to just about any project.

The end of the book details the group’s process of upgrading the full site from Flash 4 to 5, in addition to multiple pages of hyperlinks for free online Flash resources and information. And like most other Flash books, most of the site’s source code is freely available for download.

Though it is not a book to properly learn the mechanics of Flash, Macromedia Flash: Art, Design + Function provides well-rounded guidance for any Flash developer looking for smart, clear development tips for building a full blown web site.

" Macromedia Flash (tm): Art, Design + Function "
by Mighty Assembly
Sale Price: $49.99 / Used Price: $9.45
(Prices updated September 4, 2003 04:32 PM )
Buy it at Amazon.com