We all think in language

We all think in language

The quality of our language, therefore, determines the quality of our thoughts.

Part One: UX/UI

I’ve long been somewhat critical of the UX/UI emergence as a career entity, only because UI these days just seems so poor. Anyone who has worked with Max for a while knows what UI could and should be, and how touchscreen could be the aspect that takes it all to the next level. But then I inherit a Windows phone and immediately become acutely aware of how the unit represents everything that UI should not be, and it blows my mind how it has found its way into existence at all. Almost anything you wish to do is bound up in pointless complexity, and this has more to do with UI patent infringement than anything else.

There’s a ton of comment about this and UI-related opinion on this blog, for no reason other than to rant and in so doing, release my mind from the circular thought processes which seem not to have resolution.

Naturally, I’ve been involved in UI for years, modding and skinning those apps that allowed it. Only recently did I land a job that really tested what UI could be, and I think you might find most interesting in terms of UI alone.

The brief was this: A large telecoms operator in Nigeria wanted a series of television commercials announcing their 4G/LTE network. To highlight the benefit of faster internet, they wanted to portray various groups of people going about their business, whose lives were positively influenced by this. So for each scene, I was tasked of creating the graphics that would appear on the device - be it projection, laptop, tablet, phone or GPS - that firstly did not resemble anything on the market, secondly was crystal clear in its purpose, given that on-screen time would be extremely brief, and thirdly related to the scene while highlighting the speed and its benefits.

The scenes were wide-ranging. A young couple on the beach at sunset being romantic; a goods trader in a warehouse checking logistics; partygoers in a club handing some music to a DJ; a taxi driver negotiating a traffic jam, passenger is trading stocks; a passenger on a moped watching a soccer match; ladies in a market checking out fashion; a schoolteacher using an interactive blackboard, a business presentation, two surgeons at surgery, one live and one remote … stuff like that.

To really up the game, I had a week to prep before shooting started and two weeks to tweak during shooting. I had to ensure all devices displayed the content and where applicable, the content was interactive, and finally had to supply video files to production, in case they wanted the footage to drop in to post. All UI required a countdown sequence, loop and reset facility. 

Typical UI

Needless to say the job was a real pressure-cooker. I made all layouts in Freehand and all final UI in flash. On set I’d learn such things as a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 will allow interaction in Flash player, but a Tab 3 will not. Similarly, a Note 4 has such a high resolution that smooth playback can only happen via downsampled video, while the Note 2 does interactive just fine. I learned that XP interactive-projection of Flash presented absolutely no problems at all, that iphones and ipads don’t do interactive h.264 and even getting a bog standard frameless .mp4 onto anything iOS was a nightmare. And lastly, the art department had hired a limited number of devices for the shoot, but did have dummy units on standby. So when the director said ‘I want all the kids in the classroom to have pads synchronized with the projection’ you’re standing there with a mouth full of teeth, knowing that your next move it to teach half the kids to synchronise their responses to blank screens on their cardboard iPads.  And you’re doing this while working out how to sync the projection to the devices when you’re informed you have fifteen minutes to get it sorted.

Edge of Tomorrow Holo UI

In the end, it was a rewarding experience, but it did highlight the one aspect that will hold us back from the UI scenarios that we see in movies like Oblivion or Edge of Tomorrow in particular, and that is the disparate approach each device requires, mostly because anything similar is bound up in patents. It was some years back that we saw a large-format, transparent touchscreen interface, so it’s not so much that the tech isn’t here, it’s more a case of the tech is busy fighting each other, and we’re kinda hanging about waiting to see who will be left standing.

As an aside, I also did all the in-camera UI for the final Resident Evil. That was fun on a bun.

Nonetheless, UI/UX specialists are now a breed. Finally.

Note to self: SUPER is the worst UI I’ve ever seen, but apparently an aspect they’re fairly proud of…

Elegance, simplicity and minimalism.

Catchy!

Part Two: Madman blathering on

“Flash Must Die”

Whatever. It's a load of fucking bollocks that's been droning on for years. There's nothing to replace it and there never will be.

Boy are we tired of WIRED pointing out that they hate Flash. For six years now, the headlines have rung with the exciting news that Flash is finally dead and HTML5 finally reigns supreme. Six years of being utterly and miserably wrong - so, something like 'The Sun' in the UK then.

Here’s the hate speech today, identical to that first spawned in 2010. Be sure to stand amazed at how slow, dull and utterly lifeless the page appears. So they’ve overlooked one teeny tiny little detail. The ads on their own site. Not a hint of movement. No HTML5 markup. Not even the futuristic animated gif makes an appearance. Ladies and gentlemen, we present the humble JPEG. This is the mighty sword that will slay terrible Flash.

Why is Flash so terrible? Why, it creates security problems! Apparently. I’ve not encountered a single user who had any problems with Flash, so in this territory, that statement is false. Say, doesn’t Facebook rely on Flash for most of its dosh? Facebook wants all that yummy yummy advertising revenue, but alas! There is nothing even REMOTELY CLOSE to Flash. Ah, well, carry on, then.

JPEG was released in 1991 link

THE WEB was released in 1993 link

Flash was released in 1996 link

So… HTML5, with chronically bloated libraries, no bandwidth advantage and no animation tools that can draw a parallel with even the 1996 version of Flash… has thus far failed to even dent Flash in the five years it’s been alive.

2010 prediction and some voodoo juju

2016 - guess who has a competing product on release

Yeah, G+ wants Flash to move over so that the very-suddenly-dropped-on-the-market web dev app, combined with a certification, can have clear space to dominate. It’s not because Flash is bad - it’s because it’s good. Otherwise it wouldn’t be such serious competition. Hah!

Flash is practically as old as the web itself. It’s created zero problems for me - in fact, it’s created massive opportunities. As a specialist on film sets setting interactive animations to devices for in-camera capture, I can attest as to which devices display Flash and which don’t. And there is one model in every device lineup that displays Flash without a hitch, and those devices are the ones we use in film.

As for WIRED… well, by now they’ve gotta feel at least a little bit embarrassed. The doomsday headlines go back to 2010 and the layout is as plain as the first websites that ever appeared, only several orders of magnitude heavier on bandwidth.

Have you seen a pure 3D Flash website? There are many about and they’re jaw-dropping. With graphics and interactivity that put X-Box and PlayStation to shame and so light on bandwidth they load instantly, what WIRED have managed to demonstrate beyond any doubt is that Flash is undeniably the platform of choice. The long wait for their page to load, the bleak result that finally struggles to unfold and the sheer vacuum of denouncing the package for no solid reason for years on end brings to light just how sketchy their reportage really is, while the site itself demonstrably disproves the claims.

Just to be clear: Since 2010. Active Campaign. Horribly bland appearance. Entire flash sites and almost all games use less bandwidth than this one article. No substantiation. 

 Just click the ‘FLASH’ tag at the article and you’re presented with reams of articles all shouting loudly the exact opposite the content would have you believe. And they missed the point, that being G+ Web Dev Cert. Idiots.

I've been working with Flash AS3 for over 20 years. And I reckon in 20 years time, HTML5 will be at the level Flash was 20 years ago. So it set the web back 40 years and in the end will suffer the same fate as its Nemesis, due in part to the excessive code bloat already plauging the net. Five years in to the 20-year scenario and so far my prediction is holding out. Check back in 2030 for the I-told-you-so. Oh, er, strike that. This blog won't be around then. I'll make this into a Flash game, then. Ah, immortality.