SWFAddress is a small, but powerful library that provides deep linking for Flash and Ajax. It’s a developer tool, (although a dude with a visual arts degree like me can figure it out!)? allowing creation of unique virtual URLs that can point to a website section or an application state. SWFAddress enables a number of important capabilities which are missing in today’s rich web technologies including:

> Bookmarking in a browser or social website
> Sending links via email or instant messenger
> Finding specific content with the major search engines
> Utilizing browser history and reload buttons

Picnik sets the standard for how all online applications both Flash and AJAX should function. The online photo editing service is an excellent example of how to get things right when building a web service. The site features an extremely easy to use user interface designed for “joe-home-user”. Interface elements are clean and very obvious. What I particularly love about the site is the effective use of liquid layout. If you have a big screen you can make full use of it in this application. Seeing that 800×600 is almost dead, its nice to see more and more online applications taking advantage of the new big screen. This site also features a great business model as well. One small fee for the year and you have access to this wonderfully easy to user service. You can watch for this little puppy to get bought up in one of Microsoft’s buying binges. Also it has the classic green Dotcom vibe to it and the funny Web 2.0 logo… so it’s a sure-fire seller.

The Tiltviewer is a cleaver 3D Flickr viewer built using Papervision 3D. Ever since Papervision 3D came on the scene it has become the darling of the Flash community. There have been a great number of excellent applications built using it. The problem with 3D is just because you “can” doesn’t mean you “should”.. the Titltviewer is a good example of this. While the interface is well done, viewing 2D photos on a slight slant doesn’t really enhance the viewing experience – in fact I think it makes alot of the photos hard to view. I once worked with a programmer who told me this: “As interface designers we know we have done our job if the end users don’t notice us at all.” And he is right, any interface that gets between the user and their content is a bad interface. Using 3D has it’s place, but viewing slanted photos from Flickr probably isn’t the place. No slag to the folks who build this app though, it’s well done and an excellent proof of concept.

2Advanced the king of fast moving, detailed oriented flash goodness has launched their new site. The new site carries on the tradition of large graphics and beeping sound effects (although taken to a new level). The new site tries to address the “back button” problem that 100% Flash sites often suffer from. The back button does in fact work in FireFox and Internet Explorer.

Doggie Style Mobile Washing & Grooming does a really nice job of usability in Flash. Back button works, and eveything is easy to understand as navigation. Really nice project, although the design doesn’t make me do back-flips… it’s a good learning project. Only one other “gotcha” on this one. The menu to the left is really hard to use. You have to do a roll-over to get the menu to appear. Following typicaly GUI style it should be on “mouse-up” before you get the menu. Keeping UI items standard and what users will expect is key for usability. I always say, follow what Apple and Microsoft are doing. This is what people will expect.

Yahoo Flash Maps! Beta is really, really cool. I think it even makes Google maps look old now. They really did a nice job of many usability features. Alot of attention to detail in getting the UI parts right. Nice job, and well worth a look. Other things I like is the easy of scrolling around. Try moving the map around, this does a better job than Googles AJAX stuff. Flash is not dead yet!

Shadowplay Studio well isn’t a "flash" site…. but they get it right here. First thing users see the portfolio, what all their clients are after. Easy to use and simple. Very, very nice!

Lovely use of flash, and the back button works.

http://explorer.monticello.org/ 

Macromedia – Flash Developer Center : Testing/Usability Articles Good place to start for excellent reading on Flash Usability.

Stephen Hawking and Me – Flash MX Accessibility | evolt.org Good article about a topic very few people discuss online. I think most designers are visual people, so designing for accessiblity is (esp. blind) is far.. far…far away.