Pixel Moguls - Web Design & Development

pixel_blog

Using Flash in Websites

I've notice internet users have began to shy away from Flash. Not completely but as far as full flash sites go. Why? With the growing number of people that are marketing, socializing and selling products online the need for websites that can be easily found, optimized and updated are crucial. So where has flash retreated to? It never actually left, but long gone are the days when everyone wanted a flash website, flash banners, and intros.

I find that flash tools instead have been integrated into websites that need to be content friendly. These tools enhance the users experience in it's desired fashion and no other. Interactive maps, skin and design centers and 3D product view all help to enhance a site without affecting it's overall function. Instead flash has been reserved for more compelling websites with content that won't change daily such as musicians, photographers, movie trailers and niche products in which it's superior motion and effects really have a chance to showcase the subject. Nice!

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 04:30:02

CMS Software. As easy as it seems?

There are a wide variety of CMS systems out there all with benefits and weaknesses. The competition is so fierce that pretty much all quality systems are open source, meaning free. Each system openly promises that it's system is the easiest to use and that even a HTML dummy can make a awesome looking site in just minutes. Let me just state the obvious - that is completely false.

One of the power house CMS systems is Joomla, a PHP based system. This system advertises templates and plug-ins that all make it just that much more simple. As a PHP dabbler I took the challenge to make a custom template out of a CSS layout I had made for a client. The tutorials all made it sound so easy but it was in fact very difficult. So difficult I had to sub-contract it to another individual. But before doing this I began to Google every known CMS system that claimed to use easy templates. I tried demos, read tutorials and came to the conclusion that a novice could never customize their website as so advertised. Especially since I myself would have spent at least 10 hours figuring out the process.

The only system I knew of that easily let's you create a pseudo CMS system is Adobe Contribute (formerly Macromedia Contribute). Contribute shines in one area that other systems don't even claim advantage; the fact that any web designer can set it up. A novice or a web veteran can take a HTML web page and create a system that not only will retain the web sites look but allow the user to edit text and photos via editable areas specified in a single template page. No databases, no smarty tags, no php all these missing features so heavily featured as a selling point for other CMS systems, make Adobe Contribute that much more logical for an average website owner and easier for the average to advanced Web Designer/Developer to deploy.

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:31:00