EffectiveUI’s RJ Owen presented “Flash and Flex in an HTML5 and App Store World” at Adobe MAX, October 2011. This is an overview of where Adobe Flash and Flex have been, and predictions for how Adobe Flash and Flex will be used in the future for design and development.

1. Flash and Flex in an HTML5 / App Store world
Tuesday, October 4, 11

2. RJ Owen
Experience Planner
EffectiveUI
@rjowen
Tweeting this session?
rj.owen@effectiveui.com Use the hashtag: #effectiveui
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

3. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
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4. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
.flickr.com/photos/mobilestreetlife/4179063482/
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5. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
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6. Where is Flash going?
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

7. Where has Flash been?
Where has Flex been?
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

8. Macromedia Flex 1-1.5 (2004, 2005)
• Server-side technology
• Rich component set for Flash
• MXML / AS compiled to SWF on the
server using a J2EE server
• $15,000 per CPU (wikipedia)
???
• Flex Data Services required
Product Goal:
Get Flash into Business
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

9. Macromedia Flex 1-1.5 (2004, 2005)
• Server-side technology
• Rich component set for Flash
• MXML / AS compiled to SWF on the
server using a J2EE server
• $15,000 per CPU (wikipedia)
• Flex Data Services required
Product Goal:
Get Flash into Business
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

10. Adobe Flex 2 (2006)
• AS3
• Eclipsed-based Flex Builder
• Client-side compiling
• Free compiler
• Charting
• Flex Data Services 2
Product Goal:
Get Flash to Developers
Increase adoption in businesses
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

11. Adobe Flex 3-3.5 (2008, 2009)
• Open Source
• Integration with CS product line
• AIR
• Profiling and refactoring in Builder
Product Goal:
Increase Adoption, Community
Make Flex Builder a “real” product
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

12. Adobe Flex 4 (2010)
• “Design in Mind”
• Spark
• Catalyst Integration
• FlexUnit integration
• Improved profiler
• Network monitor
• TLF
Product Goal:
Improve UX
Improve Enterprise tooling
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

13. Adobe Flex 4.5 (2011)
• Multi-Screen (Mobile!)
• Builder enhancements to support
enterprise, templating, etc.
• More Spark
• Spoon.as
Product Goal:
Mobile app development
Improve Enterprise development
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

14. 1 1.5 2 3 3.5 4 4.5
Enterprise
Developers
AIR
Design
Mobile
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

15. Flex’s current trajectory: reverse-
engineering the business plan
Provide the tools required for
enterprise-level workflows
Marketed to Developers
To solve a wide array of problems
With good results
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

16. Flex’s current trajectory: reverse-
engineering the business plan
Provide the tools required for Enterprise
enterprise-level workflows
Marketed to Developers Developers
To solve a wide array of problems Ubiquity
With good results Design
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

17. 2 11
Vector
Animation Multimedia
Apps
Multi-touch
Mobile
3D
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

18. 1997 - 1999 Flash for animations on the web!
2000 - 2008 Flash for interactive sites & multi-media
on lots of things, but mostly the web!
2008-2010 Flash-based RIA applications for
desktop and web, plus everything
from before
2010 Flash-based mobile apps and
everything from before
2011 and Flash-based 3D games, native
beyond devices, and not everything from
before.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

19. So that Adobe can sell......
Creative Suite
part of $2Billion creative solutions
revenue 2010, 54% of total revenue
(#1 source)
LiveCycle
part of $355M in Digital Enterprise
Solutions revenue 2010, 9% of total
revenue (#3 source)
source: adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/financialdocs.html
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

20. Where will this take Flex and the Flash
Platform in a post-HTML5 / post-
Native App world?
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

21. I put this question to the Quora
community:
“What are the best reasons to learn Flash in an HTML5
web and native app world?”
Answers:
Consistent Experience (browser issues)
Get to market quicker
Single technology to focus on
Faster ROI
Core OOP education
and more.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

22. That’s a great start. Here’s what I think.
Flash is and will continue to be valuable
for....
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

23. 1. Enterprise
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

24. Enterprise Requirements
Client-Server integration
OO languages
Developer toolsets
Mature languages
Code generation
Best-practices
Bigger logos
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

25. Java :: Enterprise Back-End
Flex :: Enterprise Front-End
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26. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
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27. 2. Multi-Screen Development
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28. Same content, multiple screens
iOS, BlackBerry, Android, WP7, and counting....
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

29. Approaches to multi-screen:
Web-only
Multiple native applications
(avoid multi-screen ubiquity altogether)
HTML5 app cache
PhoneGap
Sencha
Titanium
AIR mobile
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

30. Multi-screen application development
represents the best business case for Flex.
Flex is an easy technology for multi-screen
application development.
AIR is the future of the Flash platform for
consumer applications.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

31. 3. Community
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

32. SpringAS Signals Flight
Swiz asmock FlexLib
Mate as3corelib Jest
Parsley as3crypto Ribbit
PureMVC as3awss3lib TweenLite
Robotlegs Away3D Tweener
tinyTLF PaperVision3D Merapi
Spoon.as FCSS WOW 3D
hamcrest-as3 Degrafa as3youtubelib
SwiftSuspenders Reflex as3syndicationlib
FlexUnit Stealth FZip
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

33. 4. Video & Audio
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34. Ogg Theora H.264 WebM
IE9/IE10 Manual Install
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
Mobile Safari
Opera
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

35. Ogg Theora H.264 WebM
BROWSER IE9
Firefox
Manual Install
INCOMPATIBILITY
Chrome
Safari
Mobile Safari
Opera FAIL
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

36. Flash FMS 4.5
IE9/IE10
IE10 tablet
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
Mobile Safari
Opera
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

37. HTML5 video lacks the ability to “secure the
content, handle reporting for our advertisers,
to...ensure premium visual quality, communicate
back with the server to determine how long to
buffer and what bit-rate to stream, and dozens of
other things that aren’t necessarily visible to the
end user.”
- Hulu
gizmodo.com/#!5538264/hulu-says-html5-isnt-ready-yet
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

38. “HTML5 Video doesn’t have a viable
DRM solution at this point.”
- Netflix
gigaom.com/video/netflix-no-plans-for-html5-video/
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

39. You have to choose two encoding techs -
Flash will be one.
Flash is still the only viable choice for
delivering protected and controlled video
and audio content on the web.
Multimedia streaming and DRM are Flash’s
strongest hold and future on the web.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

40. 5. Games
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

41. Flash is a vector engine built for animation.
and has a rich history in gaming.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

42. HTML5 games are okay, getting better
Canvas tag makes things flexible
Promising platforms like ImpactJS
starting to appear
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

43. Why move from HTML5 to Flash?
Browser support is spotty at best
Performance isn’t up to par
There is no FGL for html5 games
Source: blog.tametick.com/2011/01/why-im-moving-from-html5-to-flash.html
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

44. “Is html5 the future? I sure hope so!
Unfortunately, it isn’t the present.”
- TameTick.com
blog.tametick.com/2011/01/why-im-moving-from-html5-to-flash.html
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

45. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
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46. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
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47. Flash faces increasing competition from
other platforms in the gaming world.
AIR is a powerful platform for distributing
games to multiple platforms
Flash has a deep history in the gaming
community
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

48. 6. Translating Interaction
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

49. (Don Norman’s) Experience Design
Vocabulary
Visibility
Affordances
Feedback
Mapping
Constraint
Consistency
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

50. VISIBILITY
Perceiving interactive elements
AFFORDANCES
Understanding interactive elements
FEEDBACK
Knowing how your actions impact the system
MAPPING
How well the interface reflects your understanding of the system
CONSTRAINTS
Preventing errors in the system
CONSISTENCY
Objects that appear the same function the same
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

51. VISIBILITY COMPONENT SET
Perceiving interactive elements
AFFORDANCES COMPONENT SET
Understanding interactive elements
FEEDBACK EVENT MODEL
Knowing how your actions impact the system
MAPPING CUSTOM CONTROLS & LAYOUTS
How well the interface reflects your understanding of the system
CONSTRAINTS VALIDATION & ERROR HANDLING
Preventing errors in the system
CONSISTENCY CLASS-BASED VISUAL ARCHITECTURE
Objects that appear the same function the same
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

52. HTML mark-up is SEMANTIC
MXML mark-up is VISUAL
Semantic mark-up is good for applying
multiple views to a single data-
structure and require external visual
descriptors (CSS.)
Visual mark-up is good for defining an
explicit visual representation of an
external data object, semantic or
otherwise.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

53. Places Flash is and will be weaker
than HTML5
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

54. Accessibility
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

55. Search Engine Optimization
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

56. Web-sites
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

57. The browser was made for semantic
mark-up.
Flash locks site content in a layer of
abstraction.
Abstraction allows for generalization,
ubiquity, and re-use.
Specificity allows for customization,
perfection, and speed - an experience
highly-tailored for each specific
medium.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

58. Places Flash is and will be weaker
than Native*
*probably.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

59. Performance
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

60. Size
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

61. Consistency
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

62. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc. colinharman.com/portfolio/how-would-you-like-your-graphic-design/
Tuesday, October 4, 11

63. Software is about balance
Consistency Performance Abstraction
Ubiquity Memory Specificity
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

64. FEATURES SPEED
AIR
MOBILE NATIVE
FLASH
PLAYER
HTML5
UBIQUITY SIZE
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

65. Flash is:
Enterprise tools (but platform?)
Multiple-platforms as installed apps for
desktop or mobile
Multimedia with DRM
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

66. Native apps are:
Best experience possible on any given device
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

67. HTML5 / CSS3 / JS is:
The language of the web
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

68. Take aways:
Flex has a strong future.
It looks different than its past.
HTML has a strong future.
It looks different than its past and Flash’s past.
Native apps have a strong future.
Mobile + App stores are highly disruptive.
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

69. There’s one final case for Flash I
left out......
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Tuesday, October 4, 11

70. 7. Pushing Boundaries
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71. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
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72. © 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

73. Thanks! Fill out your surveys to win
books.
Come by the EffectiveUI
booth.
Other great sessions:
Tues 1:00pm: From Pixar to Ramayana: The Art of
RJ Owen Graphic Storytelling with Sanjay Patel
EffectiveUI Tues 2:30pm: HTML5 Semantic Web
Tues 4:00pm: Flash Platform Roadmap
@rjowen
rj.owen@effectiveui.com Weds 8:00am: Practical Mobile Development
with Flex and Adobe AIR
© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11

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© 2011 EffectiveUI, Inc.
Tuesday, October 4, 11