Apple pours salt on Adobe's wound...

In a further attempt to crush Adobe, Steve Jobs has announced that starting Monday (coincidentally the same day as the Adobe CS5 launch event) you will no longer be able to dial the number 5 from your iPhone. Steve Jobs states that the number 5 is buggy and has lead to 92% of all iPhone crashes.

This couldn't be true right? Of course not... but it is only slightly more ridiculous than his decision to prevent the use of the Flash iPhone packager. There are a lot of developers out hear that didn't want to have to take sides in the Adobe/Apple war... but we are taking a lot of shrapnel from Apple's F-You grenades.

I for one will be focusing on AIR development for every other phone and if I have to learn Silverlight to support Windows Phone 7, then I will.

This certainly doesn't make me want to go spend $3000 on a Mac, then pay for the privilege of becoming an "iPhone" developer, then spend a ridiculous amount of time learning a language that's only other use is for supporting a single minority (talking Mac vs. Windows here) platform, then spend tons of time building the next great mobile application which will need to ported to Flash anyway to support all the other phones, only to have it take forever to be reviewed by the App Store nazis and finally get rejected because Steve Jobs doesn't like the color Red (or some other undisclosed reason).

Ok... I'm done ranting for today. Now I will go back to checking out the HP Slate

Quotes like this make me cringe

"It's amazing what people have done with HTML, which was never intended to do rich Internet applications. And Flash was originally created for lightweight animation--literally for Mickey Mouse on the Web," said Brad Becker, who as group product manager for rich client platforms at Microsoft helps oversee Silverlight. "But these technologies were designed for something else, and people are really hacking them to do more."

This was in an article on CNET.

In my opinion, there is a big difference between how AJAX has be built on top of technologies that weren't meant for application development and how Flash was really rewritten to create a platform intended for application development. I don't consider what is being done with Flex and Flash as "hacking them to do more"

RIAs give new life to browsers

I was poking around the IE 8 beta site and had a thought. Given that the developer community seems to be looking outside the typical browser standards (HTML, CSS, Javascript) for ways to build richer applications, it might be easy to jump to the conclusion that the browser will be reduced to a simple delivery mechanism for Flash/Flex, Silverlight and JavaFX applications.

However, I think this trend is likely to release the browser of its responsibility of an application platform. Since it was never intended to be that platform, all the complexity that went along with it just detracts from its value as a platform for retrieving and displaying information. In the role of information delivery I think the browser is a wonderful thing. Features like the new WebSlices and Activities features of IE8 are information-centric features.

Just like any employee, if we let the browser do the job it was hired to do, it can really excel at it.

Yahoo/Microsoft Conspiracy Theory

Is it just coincidence that Yahoo replaced their Flex based maps application with an AJAX version? Could a Silverlight one be in the works? I have also heard reports of many of the Flex developers at Yahoo leaving and not being replaced?... The truth is out there somewhere... just Google it :-)

Required reading for RIA designers and product owners

With the holiday season usually comes less time and more work. Funny how that works. In the little spare time I have left, I stumbled upon what I think is a must read for anyone working on RIAs. I found Magic Ink - Information Software and the Graphical Interface to be full of useful information for both designers and product owners. One of the biggest challenges for UI designers, especially living in the Agile world, is convincing the rest of the team that slowing down and really "designing" the interface is valuable and in fact necessary for success.

The author makes numerous references to the work of Edward Tufte but also extends some of the concepts of Tufte by illustrating how and why the techniques he suggests can work in an interactive medium such as RIAs.

While the RIA technology described is not Flex or Silverlight, I think those two technologies are likely to be the most common platform for RIA development. So while reading Magic Ink, don't get hung up on the fact that the applications mentioned are HTML or desktop widgets. The concepts apply to any and all RIA platforms.

Is Flex just a Fancy-Pants technology?

I had to comment on this entry. I usually don't post comments on other peoples blogs on my own blog, but this is worth getting into here.

The point he makes about building the user interface with the end user as the sole focus is absolutely true. I don't design a UI that is intended to just be sexy or flashy. The trick is, there are times when things that seem like they just add visual flash to an application do add value in terms of supporting user goals. For example, it might seem like it isn't important to animate a menu opening. However, the value is that that transition from closed state to open state serves to show the user how they got from point A to point B. It is the same as if you are riding in a car and close your eyes for a portion of the trip. When you open them,there is a period of "where the hell am I?" even if you recognize where you are after only a few seconds. Seeing how you got somewhere makes it easier to understand how to get back here the next time you need to as well as how to get back home.

If you have ever used a Mac you surely have noticed that minizing a window animates its transition to the dock. Just visual flash? Not really. If you have ever accidentally minimized a window, it would be obvious where it went because you see it go there.

This is a minor example. You get much more value from what seems to be visual flash if the task at hand is more complicated as long as that "flash" was added solely to support a user goal. The fact that he mentions AJAX or Flex as "Fancy-pants" really shows that the author doesn't entirely understand the value of Interaction Design. Perhaps his focus is on the HCM space, but that doesn't make you an expert on the best way to meet user goals. Suggesting that all applications should run inside Office or Google is rather silly. That is like saying that your toaster should make ice. Software is built hopefully to support user goals. Bolting on functions to support unrelated goals complicates the interaction for its original purpose and certainly doesn't give you the ability to focus solely on the new function's purpose. You automatically box yourself into a framework that isn't necessary. Also, chances are, users know how to use their web browser more than Office, so why not use a technology that is easiest to use by the target audience.

Not to long ago, it would have been easy to say "why do we need to invest in the fancy pants computer to do our HR tasks, why don't we just use paper since people use it everyday?"

Flash Player - over 93% penetration

I am usually not one to just repost the same information that others are posting on their blogs. However, I will make an exception in this case, because this information is THAT important. 93.3% of users in mature markets can currently view your Flex 2 or Flex 3 applications. That is huge. A year ago, I repeat just one year ago, this number was at something like 50%.

I am also no usually one to bash Microsoft and/or Silverlight, but I will be surprised if they get to 90% in the next 5 years.

The AJAX vs Flex fight continues

Over at Schematic, there is a wonderful summarization how Forrester missed the mark when comparing AJAX and Flex. I won't bother summarizing it here. You should read it for yourself.

As a designer/developer having built large scale Enterprise web applications using both AJAX and Flex, I have to stand up and whole-heartedly agree with Schematic. I guess the folks over at Forrester have never actually built an AJAX application and had to deal with browser compatibility issues, memory leaks and the obvious sub-optimal UI you end up with in the end.

While much of the Forrester report seems to be incorrect, I have to disagree most with the statement that AJAX is faster to develop and easier to learn. I have had the opportunity to build the same application as both an AJAX and a Flex application and I can say without a doubt that the Flex version took about 40% less time to develop, has a much better UI and works seamlessly on multiple browsers and platforms. When we made the decision to build it in Flex we had very little experience with Flex as most of our previous applications were all AJAX. Yet, it was still faster to develop in Flex.

In my opinion, if you are building or rebuilding a new application, as opposed to enhancing an existing one, Flex or Silverlight are the obvious choices. OpenLaszlo is out there too, though I have not seen a compelling reason to choose it over the now OpenSource Flex. Now, before someone comments with "OpenLaszlo can generate DHTML" let me say, that generating DHTML seems to be something like Un-alchemy where you turn Gold into Lead. While Silverlight looks promising, Flex is a few laps ahead in the RIA race.

On "Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)"

I should have clarified in my initial post that my main focus is in the design/development of RIAs. So most of what I will be talking about will be focusing on apps based on Flex, AIR, Silverlight or AJAX. This isn’t to say that traditional desktop apps won’t be discussed. They just aren’t my focus.

Also, since I have had the opportunity to build apps in both AJAX and Flex, I will share my thoughts on my experiences.