Online Training
Flash Experience Design

Macromedia Flash provides us with the tools to create new forms of interaction, involving and engaging Web users in ways only hinted at in television and theater.

In this project-based training course, you'll learn how to design interactive Flash environments that deliver a message or tell a story. Narrative tools explored will include Flash event-driven functionality, movie clips, non-linear events, preloading, and optimization.

The focus of the training will be on constructing experiences that emotionally connect, while practicing good Flash usability. Experience design is a useful concept for any Flash designer or developer seeking to extend their training.

Learn the art of Flash experience design. Deliver your message and push the envelope. Your site visitors will thank you for it!

Instructor:
Margaret Penney is a teacher, designer, writer and media artist...
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Course Developer:
Aria Danika is a Flash designer and a senior Flashkit Moderator... get bio

Plan an interactive experience by analyzing the beginning, middle, and end of a narrative and sorting relevant data and information.

Use metaphors, animation, and transitions to create a consistent and useable Flash experience.

Develop sketches and storyboards to plan a Flash experience.

Consider and shape the sensory perspective of a Flash experience as well as the emotional response.

Design an interactive experience interface using Flash button objects, ActionScript event handlers, and externally-loaded graphics.

Create an attractive Flash experience that promotes a brand and includes button rollovers and other design elements that target a specific audience.

Utilize optimization techniques for graphics, sound, and tweens that ensure fast loading of a Flash experience.

Develop a Flash-based photo gallery that includes an expressive, functional interface, special effects, and ActionScript code.

Test and troubleshoot Flash interfaces and ActionScript code in Flash movies.

Outline:

LESSON 1 Intro to Experience Design Experience design has evolved from other media disciplines: information design, interaction design, communication design, and visual design, to name just a few. Lesson One examines the essential nature of a interactive experience, exploring the storytelling tools at a Flash designer's disposal. A Flash experience enables users to interact easily with a site's content while telling a story that evokes an offline experience and resonates with wider cultural meanings. In the exercise, you'll develop your critiquing skills and explore some of the functionality that makes experience design happen.

LESSON 2 Designing Interactivity Flash enables us to tell stories that are linear (passive) or non-linear (active, exploratory), and an effective experience design often blends both modes. Lesson Two examines design principles for integrating a range of interactive tools: Flash events, interactive buttons, movie clips, dynamically loading images, and preloading. All techniques are discussed in the context of optimization techniques that will make your sites work for users. In the exercise, you'll create an interactive interface that engages your audience.

LESSON 3 Portfolio Experience Project From portfolio design to the latest streaming video "test drives," Flash experience design is often used to project the identity of an individual or organization. How does the nature of an interactive experience tell a story about the site owner? Lesson Three explores how to personalize content in the context of a portfolio design project, manipulating non-Flash content, and streaming and optimizing it effectively.

Tuition: $408 US