Flash or HTML Websites???
Often my customer’s ask me, if FLASH based website is good or HTML website is good.?
My answer is simple: depends on your business need.
The only situation in which building a full website in Flash is compelling is when you are creating a complex, cinematic experience, as many Hollywood movie web sites do. That is a special case, though, with special needs, big budgets, and no need for frequent updating. It is a travesty to build an all-Flash business web site today.Flash is also better for games and complex animations, not because you can't do those things with JavaScript, but because there is not yet an authoring environment that is as good as the Flash authoring environment.In the past, some people used Flash for navigation or simple animations, photo galleries, and so forth, and those things are now better done in JavaScript (generally using the jQuery library and various plug-ins). Pages load faster, SEO is better, it's easier to maintain... and it works on an iPhone and iPad.The one place where Flash remains the preferred solution is for audio and video players. It's the only way to get compatibility with the full range of browsers -- with the notable exception of iPhones and iPads. So the only comprehensive solution today for video and audio is to include both HTML5 and Flash players.
BlackBerry PlayBook - Yet another PLAYBOY TOY
Suddenly everyone is after Portable Tablet PC’s, the new entrant in to the market that caught my attention is “Black Berry Play Book”. With Apple iPad having the first mover advantage, I guess everything that follows hence forth will be compared to iPad and here we go again.
BB Playbook Features: 7 inches screen with 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9, RAM 1GB, Camera 3 megapixel front and 5 mega rear. One thing that PlayBook surely stands out is that it can play ADOBE FALSH. Yes you heard it right Flash, which iPad does not support. Storage space is that Playbook offers is not confirmed, so keep guessing on the storage and on the PRICE
The mystery about this product is PRICE is not mentioned YET, so the rumors are $1000 and above, I would pick up a iPad instead of this. You can create a new Tablet PC, but none can match the iPad user interface design. Apple products UI are just stunningly good and their innovation is always ahead of time or Just in Time. By the time this is rolled into the market iPad Version 2 will be out, then WHAT NEXT???.
Interesting intro about the PlayBook (first word that comes to my mind is not Playbook but PlayBoy) on YouTube:
Creativity starts from Belief...
I found this excellent video from Facebook by Gregory Lee, which is very inspiring. I like the artwork and the story board, the concept of handwritten fonts on a crumbled paper background.
Hope you will enjoy this and remember… “CREATIVITY STARTS FROM BELIEF”
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=483830584745
Indian Rupee - Design Story
As a designer, I was wondering if anyone had a copy of what thoughts/illustrations did it go thru before the final symbol for INDIAN RUPEE. I could not get the main copy, something close is mentioned below.
(image courtesy Jerry Mannel)
Thinking more about the symbol of the INR, the symbol is derived from the Devnagri script “Ra” and the Latin letter “R” which represents “RUPYIA”. This is not just it. It also has more meaning to it. This symbol has a (=) sign, placed on the letter “R”. I am actually wondering if there is meaning to the other currency symbols.
After the introduction and acceptance of the new symbol for Indian Rupee , I was thinking of changing the design on our currency and then I found out this excellent design concept proposed to change the currency of US Dollars.
http://www.designswan.com/archives/interesting-redesign-of-us-dollar.html
INCREDIBLE INDIA! - Campaign 2003/2004 (Part 2)
INCREDIBLE INDIA! - Campaign 2002/2003 (Part 1)
One of the best “Print Ad Campaigns” created ever, I rank this probably my top 5 ads ever made. The photography, the typography, the copy content, the “Incredible India” logo and its fonts. This ad campaign is TRULY INDIAN, I guess after “Amul – the taste of India”, this ad does say that we Indians are creative and can get ONLY BETTER.
The first marketing initiative by the Govt of India and truly one of its kind, Incredible India campaign was conceptualized in 2002 by Amitabh Kant, Joint Secretary Ministry of Tourism and V Sunil (O&M ,Creative Director). I have mentioned a short snippet of the ad images from 2002/2003 campaign, my next blog will follow the series on “Incredible India”.
The Video ads are not that great in comparison to the print ads and “Incredible India” website http://incredibleindia.org is UTTER CLUTTER, I wish to re-design this with the best of the creative brains, which is similar to the “Print Ad Campaign”
Disclaimer: the images are copyright of http://incredibleindia.org, and taken from http://incredibleindiacampaign.com
Innovation in Sales
Sales has always been about people and relationships, one of the article that I read in www.inc.com was about the same but leveraging it with technology was icing on the cake.
Concept: Create local community and use twitter to promote the business offering prize money, while make it fun… howzzzatt..
Result: read the article http://bit.ly/9377OM
Conclusion: “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak” - Hans Hofmann
Internet Explorer and their miserable versions - A Sad Story
As web designer and developer, I share the same feeling with my other colleagues across the globe (if you are a designer who is keen to test the website before handing it over to the customer), we all find IE (Internet Explorer) as big pain. As developers it’s the most tedious task to browser compatible websites. Majority of the problem is with IE browser version than other browsers.
It’s hard to believe why Microsoft, can just copy paste Firefox and you will have people living in peace (I know the amount of changes that we have to undergo only to FIT in for IE). For Microsoft the best suggestion I can give is find the bugs (you will have pile of them from developers to send) and FIX it for god sake. IE is focused too much on the features which are already present in Firefox, but there can be no comparison with Firefox, as its way ahead of the league. Google chrome is the closest, yet there are lot of back-end features which it needs to improve, mainly the processing speed.
I would highly recommend to use Firefox http://mzl.la/bfBMzJ, it’s the best and safest browser out there. Its surely make our job a little easier so that we can concentrate more of building better websites, than fitting the browser issue – mainly IE… AHHHH.
- Nishant Kulkarni
Colorful - Holi on my screen
During my collage days the only festival that I enjoyed (or many of the teenagers) was HOLI. It only got better and better, from year to year. Since few years I have not played holi, not because we were all grown-up just dint play.
However, this holi was different. I PLAYED HOLI, on my computer screen. Yes, believe me I did. I was designing a new logo for a new customer. It was fun, designing logo (new and re-design the old) and proto-type websites. Designing has become the way of life (an excellent business where passion meets money) for me and my folks in my company. For a change we had a different working session, my challenge to my team (including me) was to design the logo as colorful as possible, no strings attached (of course with the boundary of what the customer wants). There was price for the best creative output and the judge would be the customer.
During the presentation to the customer, I gave a brief about how we designed the logo, the customer was even more interested to know what we had designed for him. The final output we had presented 6 options and the customer instantaneously liked one and froze on it, without any alterations.
This was the best holi, I had played since a long time and moreover, I had a great team with whom I played this “HOLI”. I wish the customer would have said “HOLI COW” after looking at the logo.
The Wall of Doubt and Fear
The Wall of Doubt and Fear
There is a wall that separates each of us from our most important goals in life. The strange thing about this wall is that it is a barrier which we create for ourselves.
We construct this wall in our minds using bricks of doubt and fear.
Let’s take a look at how this wall is created:
When you set a new goal, it is natural to have a small amount of doubt about your ability to achieve your objective.
Initially as you start to work on your goal, you get a boost of self confidence because you are taking action and your level of doubt decreases. However, after you’ve worked on your goal for a little while, you come to the Point of Clarity.
The Point of Clarity is the point at which you first fully understand how much work and effort is actually involved with achieving your goal. It is usually at this point that the bricks of doubt and fear start to build.
The next thing that happens is that you encounter a significant problem and immediately your doubts and fears increase which adds to number of bricks in your wall.
You then become aware of another problem:
And then problems seem to come at you from every direction
With each problem you encounter, your doubts and fears increase. You start thinking things like:
“I’m not smart enough to do this”
“I’m not capable of doing this”
“I don’t have what it takes to achieve this”
“I’m too old for this”
“I’m too young for this”
etc.
If you ever catch yourself saying things like this, it’s important to remember that
“When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubts.” – Author Unknown
Unfortunately, many people give so much power to their doubts that the wall in their mind becomes insurmountable and they walk away from their dream.
However, something truly remarkable happens to the small group of people who continue to meet these problems head on and persevere in the face of adversity.
Eventually they come to realize that facing and solving these problems is an important part of the process of achieving their goal. With experience they also realize that they ARE capable of meeting and overcoming these challenges.
With this realization, they cross over to the Point of Self-Confidence
Once you reach the Point of Self Confidence, everything changes.
You continue to face problems, but now each problem you solve makes you more confident in your ability and you begin to eliminate the bricks of doubt and fear from your mind.
You solve a problem and remove a layer of bricks
Then you solve another problem
Each time you solve a problem your remove another layer of doubt and fear.
Finally you solve the last problem that stands between you and your goal – Yourself confidence soars and the final bricks of doubt and fear disappear.
You then look back to find that the wall of doubt and fear is gone – In fact it never really existed at all.
So today I’d like to encourage you to never give in to the doubts and fears that stop most people from achieving their goals. Always remember that the wall that stands between you and your objective only exists in your own mind.
Instead of walking away from your dream, focus on solving one problem at a time. As you gain experience, your self confidence will grow and the wall of doubt and fear will gradually disappear.
Dare To Dream!
