StudioTalk: Wellington Web Design and Branding Blog

I came across this site recently (http://foodzie.com/) and think it’s a great example of well thought out navigation. If you have worked within the food industry you’ll appreciate the challenge of organising these categories in a way that people can easily find what they are looking for.  The design hasn’t been compromised either – you can have both!  Let us know if you come across any other good examples – we’re always keen to get inspired.

Adobe CS5 Master Collection

I feel like it was just 6 months ago since the last Adobe CS release, but they’ve just launched CS5! Hot on the tails of much debate on the Flash vs Apple, CS5 promises more flash to it’s Flash. Naturally there are always going to be improvements, but I’m not quite convinced there’s a great deal more on offer than the leap from CS3 to CS4.

The interface is the same, with only minor adjustments to some of the toolbar icons and the addition of CS Live! support. CS Live! is a tool Adobe has incorporated into the entire CS5 package which is designed to harness the collaborative power of the internet. Posting work-in-progress to others to collect feedback on a project’s direction is a tool which I can imagine many users finding very useful, however to me it adds no value.

BrowserLabs Browser Compatibility Testing
Dreamweaver has a new BrowserLab (http://browserlab.adobe.com) tool (which is available as a web-based application) and it enables web developers to test web pages in an array of browsers. The idea is hardly new but other testing solutions are messy, complicated and often expensive (requiring multiple machines and OS). As a developer I can appreciate the time it takes to test bugs and variations between browser engines and I welcome a seemless way to test browser compatibility.

Initially I was very skeptical, but after further inspection it actually seems that BrowserLab is generating images of each browser’s render, in much the same way that BrowserShots (http://browsershots.org) does. This means you’re getting a realistic representation of your website in each browser. Booyah!

64-Bit Support
Again, much of the Creative Suite 5 misses out on exploiting the growing list of 64-bit operating systems (OSX Leopard, OSX Snow Leopard, Windows Vista, Windows 7). The only 64-bit-native programs are Photoshop Extended, AfterEffects and Premier. Granted, these are the most processor-intensive programs but I certainly feel that Illustrator and Flash would benefit hugely from being 64-bit-native. Then again, I’m no software programmer.

What does it cost?
For the mac-daddy Master Edition you’ll be forking out over AU$3,900 for the full package, or over AU$1,300 for the upgrade (they curiously don’t have NZ$ prices). As always, Adobe CS is always going to be expensive, and for the last CS release (CS4) it was definitely worth it. To me, CS5 doesn’t bring enough new developments to warrant spending that kind of cash.

Summary
All told, CS5 is pretty, has a few nice new tweaks, hasn’t crashed on me (yet!) and is curiously trying to strengthen it’s Flash product with better reliability and special effects. However, all nicities aside, CS5 isn’t worth the dollars you’ll need to spend to upgrade. Download the trial (sure, if you’ve got 6gb of data cap to spare) and have a play for yourself (http://www.adobe.com/ap/downloads/).

Steve Jobs, Apple Ltd CEO, has released a public letter discussing the motivations behind shunning Adobe Flash from all Apple devices. It is an interesting read, especially if you’re an iPod, iPhone or iPad owner. Read the article here: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Will Apple crush Flash?

The Apple iPad is to arrive in Australia late this month, and New Zealand following closely. Many will be excited to play with yet another flash new Apple toy. But for us in the web design and development industry it will be the beginning of an interesting time.

Since the launch of the iPhone/iPod Touch, there has been a noticeable lack of co-operation between Apple and Adobe over plugins to support flash-based content. If you are browsing the internet on your computer, you are probably blissfully unaware of how much of your browsing experience is dependent on this thing called Flash (more about Flash here). Basically if you see some kind of animation or fancy effects on a website, there’s a good chance is built with Flash. Enjoy it, Flash can make the difference between a nice website and a memorable, beautiful website – but Apple refuses to have any Flash support on it’s devices.

When browsing on the iPhone or iPad, instead of slick, animated interfaces, you’ll be greeted with a blue lego block where flash content once was (examples). And there is no end in sight.

What will this mean exactly? Well. If the iPad fails, nothing. However, if the iPad takes off it will damage flash-based websites to the point of  having to close up shop or re-develop their website to include no flash at all. Which could be very expensive. What about design agencies which use flash in almost every project (for example, Resn)? Will we be taking a step back from gorgeous and interactive websites towards flat but very compatible sites? Either way the two big A’s need to pull finger and work together if we are to keep moving forward in this interactive web environment.

Further reading:
Why you wouldn’t use flash in your website
Apple iPad
The iPad Flash Clash

As just about every web designer and developer will tell you, the Firebug plugin for Firefox is a godsend. Google and their new(ish) browser, Chrome knows this. Hell, even Microsoft knows this and has incorporated a similar (albeit, unattractive) tool of their own. It makes bug-testing and understanding how elements work a heap easier.

The world of developers need to know what is going on, and right now. In-browser utilities such as Firebug let us experiment, fiddle and play around with settings without having to go back to the original files, re-upload and then refresh each page.

I recently encountered a couple of Google Chrome Extensions that caught my eye, namely IE Tab and Chrome SEO. Somebody is listening to the developers! If only Microsoft would do the same by forcing users to update the severely crippling Internet Explorer 6!

There are two points to this blog post:

1. For those of you who don’t know about it already, get Firefox and Firebug. These two tools make your job as a designer/developer a great deal easier.
2. Look into Google Chrome Extensions.Be sure to check out IE Tab and Chrome SEO. This is going to be the way of the future of on-the-fly website development.