Blacktooth Design

Category: Web

  • Google plans to block Flash on Chrome by end of 2016

    These days, HTML5 has become the standard for web media players, and as such, Google is planning to (sort of) rid Chrome of Adobe Flash by the end of 2016. However, Chrome’s new HTML5 framework will still allow users to “always run Flash content” under “Content Settings”, which seems smart considering that so many websites still require the outdated media player. Adobe itself continues its efforts to slowly phase out the program entirely, bringing Adobe Animate CC to the market as its substitute.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-plans-to-block-flash-on-chrome-this-year/

    -Cory

  • Adobe Flash is finished, get ready for Adobe Animate CC

    Adobe has announced that it is officially discontinuing Flash. Since HTML5 has become widely adopted as the standard method for graphic animation on the web, Adobe has decided to put an end to its Flash software.

    During the rise of HTML5, Adobe had acknowledged its presence on the web, having made significant strides to develop Flash to work inline with the more sophisticated coding language. While Adobe Flash is still being used on the web today, it’s been a downard spiral for the program, as HTML5 is quickly becoming the norm. As a result, Adobe will be releasing a new software platform called Adobe Animate CC. However, in an article published by Wired, some say that not much has changed – only the Flash name. The new Animate CC software that Adobe plans to release still has a lot of the security issues that Flash had.

    I’ll keep using Google Web Developer, until Adobe figures it all out. Read the articles below for more details…

    WiReD – Adobe Flash Is Dead In Name Only

    Yahoo – Adobe Flash Finally Dead

     

    -Cory

     

  • A pleasant surprise, Neilsen Norman Group

    Back in September of 2013, I attended the Neilsen Norman Group (NN/g) Usability Week training sessions in NYC. It was a great time and I attended numerous classes including “Top Web UX Design Guidelines”, “Emerging Patterns for Web Design”, and “Intranet Design Trends and Best Practices”. Speakers of NN/g Usability Week included Amy Schade, Tammy Liran Guy, and Christian Rohrer, covering a wide range of UX and web design best practices, trends, and more.

    This year’s NN/g Usability Week in New York City will be from September 26 to October 2, 2015. As I went to the website to register for some training courses, I was pleasantly surprised to find they had used my review from 2013 as a testimonial on their “Intranet Design Trends and Best Practices” page! Very neat.

    Neilsen Norman Group Usability Week

    The courses are a bit pricey, but worth it. They also have a UX certification program that aligns with the training courses. I highly recommend!

    -Cory

  • Why Web Design Is Dead

    Interesting take from Mashable on the grim foreseeable future for us designers in web design…

    http://mashable.com/2015/07/06/why-web-design-dead/

    -Cory

  • It looks great, but is that solving the problem?

    Below is a link to an article written by Paul Adams (VP of Intercom), describing the characteristics of good product design, and how designing your product visuals (while important in its own right) is the last layer in the design process. Have a look! 🙂

    “I see designer after designer focus on the fourth layer without really considering the others. Working from the bottom up rather than the top down. The grid, font, colour, and aesthetic style are irrelevant if the other three layers haven’t been resolved first. Many designers say they do this, but don’t walk the walk, because sometimes it’s just more fun to draw nice pictures and bury oneself in pixels than deal with complicated business decisions and people with different opinions. That’s fine, stay in the fourth layer, but that’s art not design. You’re a digital artist, not a designer.” – Paul Adams (VP of Intercom)

    https://medium.com/@intercom/the-dribbblisation-of-design-406422ccb026

    -Cory

  • Adobe Muse – Yay or Nay?

    Below are two articles to check out from CreativeBloq.com that talk about the good and the bad of Adobe’s Muse software. The first article is from 2011, which includes a handful of developers’ critique and the other article is a bit more recent (June 2014), talking about Muse CC.

    http://www.creativebloq.com/creativity/developers-respond-adobe-muse-8112915

    “Web designers are finally understanding the web as a medium in its own right, aspiring to be accessible and device-agnostic. Now Muse strives for print-like perfection, regardless of how many images and conditional comments that requires. This is misguided.” – Tom Muller, Graphic Designer

    http://www.creativebloq.com/adobe/muse-cc-hands-review-61411870#null

    Also of note is Muse’s good integration with Photoshop CC, which is always important to the design process and moving from mockup through production.

    In my opinion, up-and-coming graphic designers are doing themselves a huge disservice by not learning how to code HTML and CSS. They would be holding themselves back from a HUGE area of job opportunity. As a tool that aids in creating a low-touch interactive wireframe mockup, Adobe Muse definitely cuts the time down significantly for designers, and brings it up a notch visually (rather than annotating functionality from a static Photoshop wireframe). However, given alot of the hiccups that Muse presents, getting a high-touch website from the software is far-fetched, and you’ll lose that saved time recoding/redeveloping the site afterwards.

    In summary, LEARN CODE KIDS!

    -Cory