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Flash Design for Mobile Devices

View Larger Image	August De Los Reyes Wiley, Paperback, Published February 2002, ISBN 0764536478
	List Price: $34.99 Our Price: $20.95 You Save: $14.04 (40% Off)
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Wiley

The first book dedicated to the Flash design and implementation issues of next-generation wireless appliances, including PDAs, cell phones, and other small-screen devices!

Macromedia has released a Flash player for Microsoft Pocket PCs, and the coming rollout of 2.5G and 3G wireless services is certain to stimulate demand for jazzy interactive interfaces. Written by a pioneering wireless Flash designer and featuring contributions from other Flash gurus, this guide shows developers how to create compelling Flash content for the tiny screens of cell phones and PDAs, from menu and icon design to navigation systems.

Foreword

Preface

PART I:The Mobile Mindset 1

Chapter 1: The Language of Mobility

Wireless versus Mobile: Wireless
Mobile
Devices: Mobile telephones
Pagers
Mobile radio units (PMR/PAMR)
Vehicle tracking units (VTU/TTU)
Portable computers
Personal digital assistants
Personal Intelligent Communicators
Wireless Networks: The first generation
The second generation
The second-and-a-half generation
The third generation
The fourth generation
Services: Cellular services
Personal Communications Services
General Packet Radio Services
Short Message Service
WAP
i-Mode
Languages: XML
WML
CWML
HDML
J2ME
SyncML
XHTML
VoiceXML
Related Terms and Technologies: Smart cards
GPS
Multimodality
Personal Handyphone System
Short-range wireless technologies
Telematics
Unified messaging
Buzzwords: Full user mobility
Gen W
M-commerce
NIMBY
Virtual home environment
Summary

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Communications Technology

Early Communications Networks: Runners and horses
Homing pigeons
Smoke and fire
Flags and semaphores
Heliographs
Modern Communications: The telegraph
The telephone
The radio
The television
The Internet
Modern Wireless: Early cellular systems
Digital systems
Summary

Chapter 3:The New Limitations

Limitations of Networks: Less bandwidth
Lower stability
Higher latency
Lower availability
Limitations of Devices: Smaller displays
Slow processing power
Less memory
Power constraints
Guidelines for the Flash Player: No standalone player
The HTML from the Publish command
The FS command
Spawning new browser instances
Contextual menus
Printing
Audio
Default quality
Scaling
Detection of the version and type
Memory management
UI functions
Summary

PART II:The Design of Information

Chapter 4: Experience Design and Process

What Is Experience?: Conscious experience
Subconscious experience
Deconstructing Experience: Learning from offline experiences
Looking at online experiences
Interpreting wireless experience
The Process of Experience Design: Defining the goals
Analyzing the experience
Developing the experience architecture
The basis of information architecture and interaction design
Tutorial: Developing an Experience Architecture: Defining the goals
Analyzing the experience
Summing up the experience architecture
Summary

Chapter 5:Information Design for Wireless Devices

The Material of Communication The Role of Design A History of Information Design The Process: Crafting the Message The Building Blocks: Factors of Communication: The intent: Why communicate?
The audience: Who are they?
The content: What assets are appropriate to conveying the intent?
The context: When and where should the information be received?
The medium: How should the information be delivered?
Tutorial: Applying Information Design to a Device The Message: Achieving Sustainability Summary

Chapter 6: Editorial Style: Writing and Editing for Wireless Devices

The Traditional Publishing Model: Online publishing and the traditional model
Wireless content development
Basic Editorial Guidelines: Editorial tables
Present content that the user can grasp and go
Chunk it
Engineers: Editorial 101
Define the audience
Writing for Wireless Devices: Grammar as a living beast
Design over function
Call the reader to action
The Role of the Web Editor: The editor as a developmental editor
The editor as a copy editor
The editor as a project manager
The editor as a marketer
The editor as QA
Content: Getting What You Want: Online midwifery
AvantGo
The Future Editorial Model: Distributive Publishing Summary

PART III:The Design of Visual Elements

Chapter 7: Screen Layout: The Golden Canon

The Golden Mean: The divided line
The Golden Rectangle
Fibonacci numbers
The ubiquitous Golden Mean
Why Book Layout? Screen Layout on Devices: Deriving the primary content area
Eye movement
The placement of information
Tutorial: Arranging a Contacts Directory: Analyzing the elements
Preparing the Flash movie
Arranging the information
Summary

Chapter 8: Color and Image

The Effects of Color: The psychological impact
The symbolical impact
The cultural impact
Color and Image Evolution for New Media: Traditional color theory
Color for print
Color for the Web
Tools for Wireless Color and Image Processing: Vector-based programs
Raster-based programs
Choosing the Right Colors and Images: Audience
Environment
Device
Special factors to consider
Importing Images into Flash: Importing raster and vector files
Converting raster to vector
Optimizing Flash Images for Mobile Devices: Vector
Raster
Summary

Chapter 9: Typography for the Small Screen

Design Considerations: Legibility and economy
Perception and interpretation
Intent and the intangible
Making a Flash Pixel Font: Constructing characters
Importing outlines
Optimizing forms
Generating fonts
Using the Font in Flash: Movie quality
Using the grid
The Info panel
The Character panel
The Paragraph panel
The Text Options panel
Movie clips
Exporting and publishing
Pixel fonts in motion
Troubleshooting
Future Thoughts Summary

Chapter 10: Developing Effective Iconography Systems

Pictographic Language: Hieroglyphics
Heraldry
Flags
The rebus
Signs
The Qualities of a Good Icon: It’s easily understood
It’s easily recognizable
It’s easy to remember
Creating Icons: Determining meaning
Choosing imagery
Actions and objects
Considering cultural factors
Simplifying the icon
Tutorial: Creating an Icon Family: Determining meaning
Actions and objects
Choosing imagery
Layout and positioning
Considering cultural factors
Simplifying and stylizing the icons
Summary

PART IV:Multimedia and Other Technologies

Chapter 11: The Practicality of Sound in Mobile Environments

The Missing Link: Sound: A short history of media development
The limited space of the mobile environment
Audio as portable information
Extending the imaginative space
Planning for Sound: A quick overview of sound basics
Setting up custom speeds in the Debug menu
Types of sound
Tutorial: Building Multiple Bit Rate Sound SWFs: Creating a sound template
Applying compression to different files
Determining the download speed
Loading the designated sound SWF
Summary

Chapter 12: Location Technology

Applications of Location Technology: How does location technology work?
E911 and mobile phones
How does GPS work?
A brief history of GPS
Commercial and recreational GPS
Using GPS in Your Application: Earth to Pocket PC: GPS and serial communication
Different strokes for different OSes
Common serial parameters
If all goes well . . .
Understanding GPS gibberish
Selective ignorance
Error detection
Usability issues
Tutorial: Integrating GPS into a Flash Application: Defining the location-specific functionality
Information architecture and a site map
The system implementation
What’s Ahead Summary

Chapter 13: Multimodal Interfaces

Introducing Mobile, Multimodal Interfaces Pieces of the Puzzle: Multimodal Components: The visual modality
The speech modality
Multichannel applications
Smart multichannel applications
MultiMap: A Multimodal Example Tutorial: Building a Mobile, Multimodal Application: The system architecture
The information architecture
Mantras of multimodal design
Implementation
A World of Possibilities: Examples of Multimodal Applications: ShowMeShows: A multimodal reservations system
More examples
A Multimodal Future: Tomorrow
The day after tomorrow
Summary

PART V:Moving Forward

Chapter 14: Essential Wireless ActionScript

An Overview of ActionScript: trace
if — else — else if
Functions
Clip events
The Preloader: What is a preloader?
Advantages and disadvantages of preloaders
Building a preloader
Different types of preloaders
Preloaders’ wireless use
Programmatic Movement: What is programmatic movement?
Advantages and disadvantages of programmatic movement
A code example of programmatic movement
Smart Clips: The smart clip interface
A code example using smart clips
Shared Libraries: Advantages and disadvantages of shared libraries
Using shared libraries
A code example using a shared library
Summary

Chapter 15: Delivering Content

Optimizing Your Flash Files: Local versus live: Real-world connectivity
CPU considerations: Think simple
Memory and bandwidth considerations: Think small
Flash Player constraints
Working with Pocket Internet Explorer: Pocket IE anatomy
Pocket IE constraints
Publishing Your SWF Content: Setting up the Pocket PC HTML template in Flash
Using the Flash Publish feature
Transferring files to your device
Testing Your Files: Design and asset creation
As you develop
In the real world
Distributing Your Content: A Web delivery checklist
Online retailers and distributors
Final Thoughts Summary