Flash, Design and Some Useful Software

One of the myriad of things that holds my interest from time to time is web design and design in general. I dove into learning HTML and a bit of CSS to create a home page prior to starting this blog. It was by no means a masterwork, but I was pleased with it as a first effort (check it out here if you'd like). I was pleased with it primarily because it was simple, hand-coded and relatively standards compliant. I was never a huge fan of sites that were heavy on Flash (photographer's sites are notorious for this) since I'm usually scrambling for a 'skip this intro' button.

However, Flash seems to have been maturing all the while and there are now some really useful things being done with it. I have just come across what I think is an effective (finally!) and attractive use of flash technology. It's a site showcasing a graphic design contest. It's simple, useful and could be applied to more general purpose projects as well. Check it out. The show is powered by something called Autoviewer which is developed by Airtight Interactive. They also have what looks like a nice (and free) photo gallery flash engine called SimpleViewer that you can use on your own site.