Patrick Hansen.com

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Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0 is out!

Fellow coworkers Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh are official authors and have a really great book about the creative side of Flex development and design.

Published under Addison Wesley, this book provides a huge amount of information which is not only helpful to developers, but very well structured and written for designers to begin diving into a little Flex.

Even if you have absolutely no developmental experience, this book covers a lot of general design and visual UI methodologies & techniques for making that Flex application not only look great, but provide a great experience as well. We all know that even if an application looks awesome, it doesn’t necessarily mean the experience or work flow is on point.

The code samples are very easy to follow and complete, even for a novice. It can get very technical in some areas, but the way the information is provided in a clear and concise manner, makes it easy to follow along and get into. Based on the title, it is about visual experiences, and the book itself is also very visual with excellent diagrams, screenshots and attractive examples.

This is targeted for Flex 3.0, and even though Flex 4.0 is right around the corner, I can say that there is still a lot of stuff in this book which will continue to hold and be applied. I have dove into the new Flex 4.0 (gumbo) components and worked on styling/skinning of them, and even though they use a new technique with FXG, there are still many components that are not converted yet and will still use the various technique this book covers.

Another great part of this book, is that since Flex is similar to other development platforms, so are some of its visual aspects. You can explore and apply the concepts in this book towards general UI design and experience for a variety of platforms, although it does take a deeper dive into Flex 3.0.

Of course it sounds biased for me to support this book, but I am being honest when I say that this is a great book for a designer to either begin or advance their skills with the visual experience of Flex design/development. I have been working with this side of the process for about 2 years, and I still learned a lot from this book!

I’d also like to add that developers of all levels would benefit from this book too, even if you’re not very visual or have a sense for great design.

Adobe’s very own Narcisco Jaramillo contributed a great foreword also!

A coworker recently showed me some of his HDR photos which are posted on his Flickr account.

Here is Wiki’s definition of HDR:
In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

This one of a locomotive from Denver’s Union Station really stands out. The effect almost makes the photo look as if it was airbrushed or hand painted.

This was taken with his Canon EOS 40D, but he has now moved on to the new Canon 5D Mark II, which can capture 1080p HD video! The Nikon D90 also handles HD video, but at 720p.

This is one of many great photos he has taken since he began messing around with Photography in May, 2008. He has definitely progressed a lot and his pieces are gorgeous!

you should check out his other works, like the Denver Courthouse:

Here are some utility applications you can use to help create HDR photographs.

Photomatix Pro
This has a simple interface, just a large palette with many controls and sliders for adjusting levels. It seems to produce better results than Hydra, with the amount of fine tuning you have access to. It has both Windows and Mac versions, including a plugin package.

Hydra
This acts as a Stand alone as a plugin. It did not seem to have as many adjustments and fine tuning as Photomatix does, but with a little patience and time, you probably could achieve the desired result. it has plugins for iPhoto and Aperture It is less expensive than Photomatix, and has a little better looking interface, but it does boil down to the features and capabilities. It is Mac only.

Patent drawings were unveiled recently indicating that Aapple may be heading up a 3D OS, a “Multidimensional Desktop.” The drawings were submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in June of 2007, although just now surfacing.

The diagrams depict a 3D version of the current OS, including walls on right and left sides, and ceiling near the menu bar, and the floor where the dock could reside among other objects and filings like stacks.

Is this the “New” direction of common interfaces?

Although it can provide new options and benefits, the obvious is the loss of screen real estate. The metaphors are easy to grasp and I can see the potential for possibly storing your palettes when using an application like Photoshop, on the “walls.” In that case, it does free up some screen space as the items on the walls will be distorted and reduced in width. Nothing that collapsed palettes which currently exist can’t handle more effectively. I would like to see these other dimensions suppressed and brought forth only when needed, such as the “Hide Dock” feature.

It is interesting to see that Apple is stepping up as a pioneer in this realm of 3D, which has been abused and in a few cases, appropriately applied to an application which has a more traditional foundation. To see that this concept may be applied to an OS is further evidence that the exploration of the 3D realm should be increasing not only in the gaming & entertainment realms, but to see how it may improve other veins of software UI/UX design.