HTML 5 Is Dead!

“gasp” what? How can that be? What can this guy be talking about? What can this blogger possibly know and why would he say something so sacrilegious? I’m aghast…

I’m sure that is the kind of response that many of you are having when reading this article but I wanted to make a point, with all the excitement around HTML 5, not so much that its bad but people seem to be in one camp or the other and few are looking at the big picture. Yes HTML 5 is awesome and all but many of the ‘HTML 5 is awesome’ crowd is saying other RIA technologies are dead and it is just not logical to make a whole sale generalization like that and it drives me nuts. I hear things like ‘Flash is dead’ or ‘Silverlight is dead’ (even from some less then razor sharp micrsoftee’s).

HTML fine is the foundation of all our content on the web and all but a technology whose last major version is 10 years old is not making rich immersive technologies like flash out dated? That’s just crazy. Flash and Silverlight both in particular have proven over and over again that they iterate faster and more importantly ‘innovate’ faster than more open technologies like HTML. Both of those technologies do more, better and faster than HTML 5 and are more cross platform, more tool-able and have better dev/workflow stories across the board. But why do people put these technologies up against each other at all? That’s like saying apples are better than oranges? They are just different.

HTML 5 is a cross platform long term foundation for web based content and web based apps and great it now is more richer then before but RIA technologies such as Flash and Silverlight both are not nor have they ever been dubbed as a replacement for HTML (at least not anyone I know). These technologies both live out of the browser and are ways of delivering on all the promises that Java first made when it came out. Rich cross platform immersive UI experiences on so many platforms from droid phones to xbox to browsers and desktop apps.

HTML is for the rich distributed web stuff and Flash and Silverlight is for immersive experiences that may or may not be on the web at all. HTML in the browser or maybe even an HTA sort of app and Flash/Silverlight is for UX that leaps out of the browser. HTML 5 is cool but that doesn’t mean that more powerful RIA technologies are dead. To each his own and to each problem space its technology; there is room enough for it all. Let’s all be a bit less zealous about things and focus on building better apps regardless of the technology you want to use.

Heck if apple had any since they would get flash on the iphone for building cool apps so we don’t have to use that objective C…

What I tell Designers to give me... Integrating and Digital Zen

Having composite teams with designers, integrators, dev's and the like on staff on the same time and working all in a unified set of tools like say, Expression Blend, Visual Studio, Silverlight etc etc etc for most of us is a luxary that we don't have. I have worked on teams like that and its awesome and all but not realistic all the time. Wirestone (the company I work for) is a great example what I would call the best interactive experience design firm in the world especially in the public facing/retail space (kiosks, touch walls, media marketing integration, social media marketing etc). We are truely awesome... But amazingly enough even though alot of these experience we build are based on some XAML related technology it doesn't mean that we have a zillion designers in blend for example. Like us it is not cost effective from a business standpoint to retrain all the designers out of Adobe, nor are most designers eager to switch...

Your response probably depends alot on your background. If you a ms zeolot you might think, why the heck not? if your a designer you might think 'dah' and there is a spectrum in between but as it turns out the biggest reason that its not cost effective is that there is a way... a straight and narrow path to a User Experience 'Zen' like team that works much like the above w/o using all microsoft coolaide (*gasp).

shhh... don't tell the ms ninjas...

As it turns out Microsoft did a bang up job with expression blend and probably the key thing is that blend does a wonderful job of importing adobe assets so well in fact that with a little bit of communication and learning to work together we still are able to achieve that zen state of designers, developers, IA's and the like working together at the same time on design and implmenetation. But there is a bit of a list I like to give my designers :) (don't worry there is another list for dev's;) for work on digital experiences

item 1. a pdf of everything they send me showing what they see looking at the assets (wiresframes, comps, redlines etc) native format is awesome too.

item 2. all typography with any font of any element that could maybe ever be dynamic as part of a digital experience I want a PSD typographic red line.

item 3. TTF's for all the special fonts that didn't come over in the PSD typographic red line.

item 4. all the UI elements are in AI (Adobe Illustrator). why? because it comes into blend almost as native XAML as its all vector based.

item 5. make sure all the elements are grouped in illustrator and named with something meaningful to humans... :)

item 6. illustrator elements must be inside the illustrator canvas or they don't work at all.

item 7. communication, communication, communication. talk about it. lets design together, walk me through the vision.

item 8. be nice to developers, not all of them understand the difference between Verdana and Helvitica nor do many of them appreciate the difference between padding=5 and padding=5.56793845. they are handicapped that way frequently.

now we can build some hot and sexy ui which is the only way I like my ui. if I don't have an emotional experience when I look at the ui the first time its not good enough.

From a business standpoint its not cost effective to re-train and re-purpose when we can do the same thing and still keep people in the tools they enjoy.

note: there is also a rumor aobut FXG files but I haven't tried yet but promises to be better the AI files.

Blend/Catalyst Smack Down?

Designer and Developer Workflow

Is it a myth? Marketing lingo? Or could it be real with the help of powerful tools?

Listen in as Ryan Stewart from Adobe and Adam Kinney from Microsoft discuss the workflow concept from their respective point of views. Ryan will demonstrate how Flash Catalyst works within the Flash Platform development cycle. Adam will show how Expression Blend fits into the Silverlight development workflow.

Come join the fun with two of the best speakers in the world on Adobe/Blend at Interact

http://www.seattled2ig.org/?p=257