In a flash class recently I was asked which technologies some one needs to be aware of and competent with when dealing with web design. In answer I quickly knocked a simple ideas chart to showcase which web technologies you need to know, and also some notes about where things are/were and where they are going…
Which web technologies
The big thing of course is html5 and Flash. As you can see from the diagram, everything Flash can do (broadly speaking) can be done in HTML5, with the caveat that HTML5 covers CSS3/JavaScript/HTML5 and things like WebGL.
The main sticking point at the moment is that Flash is a GUI and there really is no GUI that covers the things in HTML5, however, things are changing! The next year or so is going to be very interesting as regards HTML5 and web design I feel.
To show just how, here are some links to some of the newcomers that will help you animate and draw using HTML5 technologies…
Adobe Edge (beta) - http://labs.adobe.com/
Wallaby – for converting your Flash files into html – very basic, but interesting - http://labs.adobe.com/
The following are not HTML5 specific, but I think are well worth mention in their own right as they make life very easy for design and sketching out your web pages…
Balsamiq - http://balsamiq.com/
Napkee - http://www.napkee.com/
Do not forget of course that we are also talking about using HTML5 to creating some fantastic tablet and smartphone apps, so do not think of just web pages, but also iPad and iPhone apps as well. Have a look at these web-based apps…
scribd - http://www.scribd.com/
aviary - http://www.aviary.com/
google body - http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/
CSS3maker - http://www.css3maker.com/
…and so on. There are many apps out there, with more coming. Let me know if you have come across any interesting ones and I will add them to the list.
