Smashing Magazine we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

50 Beautiful Flash Websites

By Carlos Pinho, June 7th, 2009 in Design Showcase | 147 Comments

Flash enabled designers and developers to deliver rich content over the browsers, creating motion, interactivity and an impressive visual experience. Good Flash-sites do not require too much bandwidth, load fast and allow for a smooth interaction; besides, beautiful Flash-based sites are Photoshop masterpieces, transporting some kind of reality and fantasy to the Flash movie.

In the showcase below we present 50 colorful, creative, interactive and beautiful Flash-based web-sites. Hopefully they will serve you as an inspiration for your future works or just entertain you on a lousy, boring Sunday.

Read more...
Flash vs. Silverlight: What Suits Your Needs Best?

By Muhammad Usama Alam, May 9th, 2009 in How-To | 292 Comments

With the release of Silverlight 1.0 and its subsequent versions, a debate started among designers and developers regarding choosing between Flash and Silverlight. Silverlight faces difficulties in capturing the market because of the maturity of Flash. However, Silverlight has managed to keep up by including certain features that designers and developers have always wanted to see in Flash, such as search engine optimization.

In this article, we will discuss some of the technical differences between Flash and Silverlight to help you choose the technology that best suits your needs.

Flash uses the frame-based animation model. In frame-by-frame animation, we create an object for each frame to produce an animation sequence. For example, if you want to move something across the screen in 3 seconds, calculate how many frames 3 seconds will take, then calculate the matrices required for each frame along the way. Keep in mind that the player won’t actually maintain a frame rate unless you embed a blank audio track; otherwise, 3 seconds might turn out to be 2 or 6 or 5.

Read more...
Switch From Print To Web: Where To Start?

By Cameron Chapman, April 16th, 2009 in How-To | 70 Comments

Making the switch from print publishing to digital publishing is a big step. But as costs for everything from paper to shipping increase, making the jump to digital is becoming more appealing to publishers of both newspapers and magazines. It's a complicated process, though, and if not executed effectively, it can leave readers feeling alienated and disenfranchised.

Not exactly what you want, considering that it can be more difficult to attract and retain digital subscribers than to sell something outside of the virtual world. Below we discuss some things to consider when making the switch. Research up front will prevent headaches down the road.

Read more...
39 Creative Flash Designs

By Smashing Editorial, April 2nd, 2008 in Design Showcase | 90 Comments

Flash is powerful. Using it properly, you can create stunning visual experience and offer your visitors incredible user interaction. Although Flash is definitely not the favourite medium for usability and accessibility advocates, it has its advantages. With Flash designers can achieve results which simply aren’t possible with (X)HTML and CSS. Whether you like Flash or not, it empowers the Web with functionalities which make it an incredibly interactive medium.

Flash-based web-sites can look not like web-sites at all; Flash-designers tend to use colorful, dynamic, loud and extremely vibrant approaches, with effects and animation, music and videos, stunning visual elements and interactive navigation menus. Below you'll find 39 examples of creative, beautiful, shocking, unusual, but always outstanding Flash-based designs.

You might also want to take a look at the articles
- 65 Excellent Flash Designs which features 65 examples of outstanding Flash-based web-sites.
- Showcase Of Creative Flash Preloaders which may serve as an inspiration for your Flash-projects.
- Adobe Flash Tutorials: Best Of with hand-picked professional Flash tutorials which can enrich your design skills and improve the quality of your works.
Read more...
Showcase Of Creative Flash Preloaders

By Smashing Editorial, March 13th, 2008 in Design Showcase | 78 Comments

When it comes to Flash, images, animation, videos and sound effects are often used on large scale. Consequence: in most cases Flash takes quite much time to load and requires a good dose of patience from users. Users know it and are often willing to give a Flash-site some time to load. However, to count on user's patience, Flash-designers need to inform site visitors how much patience is actually required. If it isn't done, the latter have no anchor point to estimate how much more time is needed and consequently close the browser window thinking that the site simply doesn't work properly.

In this post you'll find some creative Flash-preloaders which may serve as an inspiration for your Flash-projects. Please notice that sometimes you need to look closely and precisely in order to find the preloader. Depending on the server load and your connection preloaders may quickly disappear. In most cases it's not a disadvantage — well, at least it shouldn't be.

Please notice that
- you might also want to take a look at the article 65 excellent Flash-designs we've published earlier,
- this selection is not ultimate and isn't supposed to be the best of; it is intended to provide you with some ideas for creating your Flash-preloaders once you need to — please share your favourite Flash-preloaders in the comments to this post.
Read more...
Adobe Flash Tutorials - Best of

By Smashing Editorial, January 17th, 2008 in Tutorials | 178 Comments

Although usability evangelists often consider Flash to be a usability nightmare, used properly, Flash can provide users with a rich and interactive interface which would be impossible otherwise. Today Flash is the de-facto standard for interactive elements on the Web as most users install Flash plug-in by default. And in fact, there are many paths creative designers can take to create a more interactive and user-friendly interface.

Searching for 'flash tutorials' via Google & Co. won't provide you with the results you expect. Not that you won't find any relevant results, on the contrary — you will be directed to a large number of Flash repositories which offer everything: sometimes useful, but mostly not. Besides, browsing through these repositories isn't that much fun — as you sometimes need to figure out whether a link you see is a hidden AdSense-block or the actual tutorial. And it's really hard to find something "refreshing" and new simply using some standard keywords.

This article provides hand-picked professional Flash tutorials which can enrich your design skills and improve the quality of your works. We've tried to select most interesting and useful tutorials. Most sources can serve as the entry point for further tutorials.

Read more...
Hand-Drawing Style In Modern Web Design

By Smashing Editorial, January 3rd, 2008 in Design Showcase | 145 Comments

The most valuable and innovative ideas had all been handwritten first. That's no big news, since designers tend to produce first sketches as paper prototypes anyway; still it's important, because web design is different from "usual" design. Of course, it also has a personal note and it is hand-made, however users can't see that. As CSS is "boxy but good", designs tend to have a rather limited appearance — they are too boxy and too right-angled.

If designers want to achieve a different design, they have to draw their sites by themselves — or at least some parts of it. And in fact, this is done quite often: whether a blog, a shop, an ad, a private page, or some collaborative project — doesn't matter whether with Flash or (X)HTML. The main purpose of hand-drawn elements lies in their ability to convey a personality and an individual note in times when colorful, sharp and rounded Web 2.0 elements can be found almost everywhere.

How impressive can the results be? And when can the hand-drawing style be used? Let's take a look at some excellent examples of hand-drawing style in modern web design. All screenshots can be clicked and lead to the sites from which they've been taken.

Read more...
3D-Experience in Flash

By Smashing Editorial, November 12th, 2007 in Inspiration | 30 Comments

Used effectively, Flash-based designs can achieve astonishing presentation and impressive user interaction. (In fact, we've already showcased some outstanding examples earlier.) When supported by intuitive design, a mix of visual effects can create a rich user experience. Flash-designs with 3D-effects can be used to do just that. As a part of our Monday Inspiration series let's take a look at some examples of incredible 3D-experience in Flash.

Read more...
Crazy Cursors

By Smashing Editorial, November 5th, 2007 in Inspiration | 23 Comments

Since mouse cursor is an essential element of user interaction, designers rarely risk to modify its presentation. Usability might keep you away from using experimental solutions in practice, however creative solutions and experiments are worth consideration and always nice to look at. In today's part of our Monday Inspiration series we'd like to showcase some examples of unusual approaches used for design of... well, mouse cursors!

Read more...
Smashing Pumpkins and Halloween Redesigns

By Smashing Editorial, November 1st, 2007 in Design Showcase | 38 Comments

Right, it's the 31st of October. In spirit of the coming Halloween parties we'd like to spark some design flavour by showcasing Halloween redesigns we've stumbled upon over the last few days. Pumpkins, skeletons, dark colors and spiders can be found almost in every Halloween design. In some cases designers replace some of the logo elements by visual elements (images or Flash-movies); other designers tend to add dark background colors and an according Halloween theme to the web-site's header. And sometimes the whole design is completely replaced with a Halloween theme.

Last week we've presented some beautiful wallpapers and tutorials in our Halloween Roundup: Wallpapers And Tutorials and asked our readers to send us their redesigns of our Smashing Magazine logo. As a result we've got a number of Smashing Pumpkings which we'd like to present in this post as well. And we've also replaced our logo with the Halloween logo designed by Marian Buhnici (first logo in the list below).

Read more...
65 Excellent Flash Designs

By Smashing Editorial, October 30th, 2007 in Design Showcase | 150 Comments

With Flash you can do more than just displaying videos. You can create stunning visual experience and offer your visitors incredible user interaction. Although Flash is definitely not the favourite medium for usability and accessibility advocates, it has its advantages and it empowers the Web with functionalities which make it an incredibly interactive medium. With Flash designers can achieve results which simply aren't possible with (X)HTML and CSS.

The results can be creative, impressive, beautiful and fascinating. Under two conditions: 1) if designers find the right mixture between graphics, animation, video and sound and 2) if designers follow the guidelines of usability and user interaction.

However, since there is a number of things that can go wrong in Flash, it's easy to get it wrong. In fact, there are thousands of examples where it is the case. In Flash any experiments with navigation and layouts are possible and in most cases it's extremely hard to find a creative yet intuitive approach. Flash is commonly used by designers, agencies, advertisers and interactive web sites, and not on the sites where simplicity and quick access to information are important.

In this post we present 65 examples of outstanding Flash designs with excellent use of graphics, visual elements, interface design and graphics motion. This showcase (mostly) presents "pure" web designs; we've tried to avoid Flash-based games and advertising.

Read more...
Extreme Colors

By Smashing Editorial, October 22nd, 2007 in Inspiration | 25 Comments

The beginning of the week is always tough. Coffee breaks are tedious. The aftermath of weekend is still evident. And conversations with your colleagues aren't that enlightening. Yet there is always a number of tasks you need to get done until the end of the day. To spark your imagination and help you to get through monday's creativity block we are going to provide you every monday with "Monday Inspiration"-posts — brief pointers to appealing design approaches, interesting ideas and unusual solutions.

Today's monday inspiration is all about some really colorful pages. Be prepared for some extreme colors.

Read more...
Charts And Graphs: Modern Solutions

By Smashing Editorial, October 18th, 2007 in Developer's Toolbox | 120 Comments

Charts are supposed to visualize data in order to give a more profound understanding of the nature of a given problem or recent developments. Whatever type of data presentation you prefer (pie charts, bubble charts, bar graphs, network diagrams etc.), you can create charts in graphic editors manually or use special desktop-software instead. In both cases you have a major problem: once you’d like to update an old chart, or create a new one, you have to run the application and create new images over and over again. That’s not flexible. That's also not usable — e.g. if you'd like to update your chart live.

Server-based solutions, implemented with Flash, JavaScript or pure CSS, offer a more flexible alternative. In fact, since Flash offers significant advantages over static data presentation with CSS and JavaScript, most solutions use it for dynamic data visualization. The data itself is often stored in XML-files which are loaded and updated via PHP or ASP. The price range varies enormously — depending on the flexibility and level of customization you'd like to have. However, if you don't want to pay, you don't have to — there are powerful free solutions as well.

This article presents an overview of tools, applications and techniques for visualizing data in charts and graphs. Among other things both free and commercial chart tools, services, desktop-applications and web-based solutions (Flash, JavaScript, CSS) — you can use them on your server — are presented.

Please notice that the solutions listed below don't necessarily produce charts which serve the main purpose of data visualization — namely, to provide an easy-to-use visual presentation of (possibly) complex data sets. It's far more important that the presented information is usable and comprehensible rather than presented in a visually appealing way. Outstanding data visualizations aren't achieved by the beauty of data presentation, but by an effective interpretation of the data it represents.

Read more...
The Showcase Of BIG Typography

By Smashing Editorial, October 15th, 2007 in Design Showcase | 129 Comments

The main advantage of excellent typography lies in its ability to be both attractive and functional at the same time. Although images communicate more vividly, text presentation can impress visitors with its sharpness and precise geometrical forms and curves. Consequently, chosen wisely and used carefully, it can be very effective — and there are dozens of outstanding examples of how the latter can be achieved.

However, web typography doesn't have to support the overall design. It can dominate. It can be loud. It can be bold. And it can be everywhere on a web-site. In many situations it's reasonable to give the typography the prominent position it deserves, leaving visual cues in the background or removing them at all. Doing that, you have to risk large font sizes surrounded by a generous amount of white space. What comes out of it? Elegant web sites with a unique form, style and sense of precision.

In this article we present over 35 examples of big, "loud" and yet elegant typography in web design; some listed designs are Flash-based, and in some cases designs are based not only upon typography, but also upon some visual elements.
- You might be interesting in the showcase of simple and clean designs we've published before.
- Please notice that all images can be clicked and lead to the sites from which the screenshots have been taken.
Read more...
Flash-Based Galleries For Your Images

By Smashing Editorial, October 12th, 2007 in Graphics | 119 Comments

In many situations web designers should avoid Flash and prefer usual text-based presentation. For instance, in most tasks related to pure text presentation Flash is neither necessary nor user-friendly, and it also has some serious accessibility problems: in fact, "pure" text is easier to maintain and easier to copy and paste.

However, if you'd like to present some multimedia-content, particularly images, Flash can often be a feasible solution, with flexible image management for web designers and impressive visual presentation for users. Used moderately, Flash-based galleries can give the presentation a fresh spark and create a rich visual experience you might want to offer your visitors.
In this post we present some of the free, attractive and flexible Flash-based galleries you can use to present your images more effectively.
- You might find some useful references to further galleries in our article 30 Best Solutions For Image Galleries, Slideshows and Lightboxes.
Read more...
Splash Pages: Do We Really Need Them?

By Smashing Editorial, October 11th, 2007 in Design Showcase | 89 Comments

Yes, sometimes we do. Should we use them? No, we probably shouldn't. Splash screen (or splash page) is a front page of a web-site that don't provide the actual content, but offers visitors some kind of intuition or background information for what the site is about. Designers use splash pages in their portfolios to impress potential clients with eye-candy. Companies tend to make use of them to draw users' attention to their latest products. And users literally can't stand them, because splash pages usually take a long time to load and provide (almost) no navigation options — except of "entering the site".

Depending on designers' creativity, splash pages use more or less attractive visual elements, sometimes with interactive Flash-movies which sometimes start to play automatically. Splash pages usually have a very simple structure — mostly just an image with few text lines and links. The design of these pages sometimes isn't related to the overall site design. And although most sites don't use them, splash pages are sometimes necessary and therefore remain popular. In fact, there are some situations in which we might want or might even need to use them. Even although we shouldn't — for our visitors' sake.

Read more...
Attractive Online Diagrams, Charts And Maps

By Smashing Editorial, September 20th, 2007 in Developer's Toolbox | 43 Comments

Data charts and diagrams are used when statistical data has to be presented in the most convenient and usable way. Visual charts are clear, visually appealing and easier to perceive than some simple enumerations or tables - mainly because users don't have to analyze the meaning of presented facts, but can perceive main tendencies through the visual weight of the facts — directly. You can create charts in graphic editors or use special applications (software or web-apps) which can help you to create your charts in few minutes. However, once you'd like to update an old chart, or create a new one, you have to run the application and create new images over and over again. That's not flexible. Or maybe you just want to offer your visitors not a simple image, but a powerful dynamic chart. To gain a greater level of flexibility you need to take a closer look at further approaches.
Read more...
ConceptShare: Online Design Collaboration Made Easy

By Smashing Editorial, August 31st, 2007 in Developer's Toolbox | 20 Comments

We've all been there: a typical task web-developers permanently have to deal with: how to communicate with clients in an effective and convenient way? How to make sure that the best compromise between designers' professional decisions and clients' personal interests is indeed found? The more organized and convenient you handle the communication issue, the more conflicts and additional work you can avoid. The answer is actually quite simple: you need to listen to your clients, although you shouldn't follow their wishes blindly. Clients don't always know what they really want and even more often they don't know, whether the changes they'd like to introduce are effective in some way. You also need to make sure that your clients are listening to you, which is why you also have to build up the trust and respect for your professionalism and your work. To achieve both goals, you need to discuss your concepts, ideas and sketches in a simple, descriptive and convenient way. You also need to receive a precise feedback on what details your clients would like to change or improve, and - more importantly - why they'd like to do that. Sending screenshots via e-mail often causes conflicts and misunderstandings, particularly because clients can't articulate directly and have to describe with words what they actually mean.
Good news: there is an effective all-in-one-solution which can make the communication process much easier. ConceptShare is an optimal web-based idea and design sharing and collaboration tool you can use for virtual workgroups with clients, customers and colleagues.
Read more...
Exploring Design: Outstanding Start Pages

By Smashing Editorial, July 17th, 2007 in Design Showcase | 130 Comments

Designers have only a fraction of a second to attract users’ eye and win over their loyalty. Clear visual structure, thought-out typography and moderate use of images are extremely important - as they can drastically improve the scanning process for the users. Consequently, to achieve a lasting positive impression, it’s common to make use of basic rules of usability.
However, classical solutions can be boring; creative solutions can be appealing. Therefore to impress visitors, designers risk unusual and innovative approaches. After all, between standards and creativity there is a lot of room for design experiments. We observe these experiments. We explore new approaches. And we collect them, so you don’t have to.
And since no page is equally important as the start page, it’s interesting to know, which approaches designers come up with, developing an innovative design for start pages. Let's take a look. Unusual, remarkable and outstanding start pages - in a brief overview.
Read more...
60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs

By Smashing Editorial, May 21st, 2007 in Design Showcase | 226 Comments

It's quite easy to get stuck in creativity blocks, but it's damn hard to get out of them. Particularly if you are out of time and don't want to compromise your professional principles selecting the first "quick-n-dirty" solution you can think of. To get things done, you need inspiration and creative thinking. You need fresh ideas and elegant approaches. And you need to be able to find them as quick as it is possible. Handy references and examples are therefore both useful and enjoyable - after all, who can resist gorgeous, professional, elegant and visually appealling designs?
We've selected some of them. In an overview below you'll find 60 fresh, elegant, professional and visually appealling designs, which pay close attention to details and manage to remain simple, user-friendly and nice-looking. You might be interested in taking a look at design showcases we've published before:
- Keep It Simple, Stupid - Showcase Of Simple And Clean Designs
- 50 Beautiful CSS-Based Designs in 2006
- 45 Fresh, Clean and Impressive Designs
- 30 Dark Designs
- 11 Almost Perfect Business Layouts
Please feel free to comment upon the selected designs: nothing is more important to us than constructive criticism from your side. You can also Digg this post, bookmark it on Del.icio.us and Stumble it!.
Read more...