Flash Designer/Developer
by Dan Geller
Part II: A Typical Day for a Flash Designer/Developer
A "typical" day. (Hmm, I don't think I've had one of those yet.) But in any sense, a "typical day" depends on which part of the design and development process we're currently involved with. Often we're planning an upcoming project, while adding the finishing touches to another. And because Flash continues to evolve, of course what we learn from one project benefits the next.
Our company works in a three-stage design/development/production cycle; we call these stages Innovation, Creation, and Implementation.
The Innovation period represents the up-front project management, idea collection, and architecture phase of a project. If we have not yet rooted out the client's objective, now is the time to pursue that answer, as well as their design direction and budgetary constraints. During this period we seek to determine the content and functionality to be included in the program, the structure of the site, and any future scalability the piece might include. We also spend time seeking to identify all available imagery, logos, eps files, text files, and any other data that may help us structure and produce the piece. In addition, we begin to establish an outline, or script-writing options, as well as site-architecture plans that will help us construct a defining armature to the project.
The Creation phase commences with the presentation of our design comps. Following our clients' approval, we then proceed into actual production, which could include everything from building layouts to animation to coding, voice over, video shoots, and so on. We use a number of well-worn digital tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro) as well as the talents of many creative and technical resources (Writers, voice over artists, database administrators) to help us during this busy phase. We pride ourselves on paying attention to the special qualities that make a Flash piece a Flash piece (such as the design, animation, and interactivity, the small, fast-loading files, and most importantly, a sense of fun).
The Implementation period is reserved for the completion and delivery of the final product, and varies depending on how the site is structured in the Innovation stage. Even though we've been checking all along during the creation phase, we spend time on Quality Assurance, loading scripts, and checking final text edits. Then we submit the final files to the client, or place them on their Web space, review our process, and then celebrate before we go onto the next job.