4 ms·

As much as everyone loved to hate on Flash, it was brutally effective as a web motion design tool and has yet to be surpassed when visually building interactive

by hnzix 9y ago

As much as everyone loved to hate on Flash, it was brutally effective as a web motion design tool and has yet to be surpassed when visually building interactive experiences. I've seen designers with almost zero coding skills build incredibly immersive and creative web pieces. There was a whole generation and genre of web content that has vanished and never been replaced - praystation, flight404, Hi-ReS! and so on. Processing is similar in spirit but has only filled part of the niche. I really hope Haiku revives experimental, interactive motion design on the web. While Flash was inappropriate for delivering marketing text content, I see the genre's value as being a standalone artform.

zackbrown 9y ago
Totally agreed with your thoughts on Flash — it did a lot of things very right, even though its age and its combination of technical & corporate missteps led to its death. Unfortunately, Flash got such a bad rap through performance/security issues and the wrath of Steve Jobs that the "baby" (the authoring tool & connected approach to design+code) got thrown out with the "bathwater" (namely, the plugin, Flash Player.) We also really hope that Haiku helps empower experimentation and drives a new generation to explore the boundaries of design and code — the way several on our team were inspired by Flash many years ago. This is the crux of the name Haiku — we believe the artistic/creative spirit behind writing a minimal poem like a haiku is really similar to that which goes into crafting UIs.
CharlesW 9y ago
> As much as everyone loved to hate on Flash, it was brutally effective as a web motion design tool and has yet to be surpassed when visually building interactive experiences. My 2¢: I think you may be romanticizing the ratio of "interactive experiences" to intrusive ads, bad games (but in bulk, to make up for the quality) and (eventually) video. But if you like the brutally-effective tool, it still exists[1] and has seen regular improvements, but now emits standards-based content that works as well or better than Flash did. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Animate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Animate
- hnzix 9y ago
  > the ratio of "interactive experiences" to intrusive ads What is the ratio of poo HTML websites to awesome ones? Probably worse :) Anyway I don't care about ratio, I care about the best examples - and I really haven't seen any JavaScript showcase websites that really inspire me. Processing is the only experimental stuff that sparks any interest. (Please, do hit me with awesome JavaScript arty links to change my mind! ... remember hell.com?)
drcongo 9y ago
You left out Gabocorp!

by hnzix 9y ago

zackbrown 9y ago

Totally agreed with your thoughts on Flash — it did a lot of things very right, even though its age and its combination of technical & corporate missteps led to its death. Unfortunately, Flash got such a bad rap through performance/security issues and the wrath of Steve Jobs that the "baby" (the authoring tool & connected approach to design+code) got thrown out with the "bathwater" (namely, the plugin, Flash Player.) We also really hope that Haiku helps empower experimentation and drives a new generation to explore the boundaries of design and code — the way several on our team were inspired by Flash many years ago. This is the crux of the name Haiku — we believe the artistic/creative spirit behind writing a minimal poem like a haiku is really similar to that which goes into crafting UIs.

CharlesW 9y ago

> As much as everyone loved to hate on Flash, it was brutally effective as a web motion design tool and has yet to be surpassed when visually building interactive experiences. My 2¢: I think you may be romanticizing the ratio of "interactive experiences" to intrusive ads, bad games (but in bulk, to make up for the quality) and (eventually) video. But if you like the brutally-effective tool, it still exists[1] and has seen regular improvements, but now emits standards-based content that works as well or better than Flash did. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Animate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Animate

hnzix 9y ago
> the ratio of "interactive experiences" to intrusive ads What is the ratio of poo HTML websites to awesome ones? Probably worse :) Anyway I don't care about ratio, I care about the best examples - and I really haven't seen any JavaScript showcase websites that really inspire me. Processing is the only experimental stuff that sparks any interest. (Please, do hit me with awesome JavaScript arty links to change my mind! ... remember hell.com?)

drcongo 9y ago

You left out Gabocorp!