Features & Special Reports

• Feature 1: Thirty Usability Pointers in the Age of Ajax

  - Ajax that Improves Usability and Ajax that Decreases Usability -

  Does Ajax really help the user? Does it really improve usability? Compared to static HTML sites, it’s actually very difficult to improve usability for sites that use Ajax. Designing under the assumption that simply choosing to use Ajax will make a site more user-friendly is shortsighted and it creates a window for users to abandon the site instead of embracing it. This feature introduces usability pointers in the “Age of Ajax” that go beyond prior discussions about usability. The knowledge is also helpful for creating Flash sites with similar features.

  

• Feature 2: SWF Tuning - One Byte Lighter and One Millisecond Faster

  - What a Flash Creator Should do to get their Content out in the Wild -

  With the widespread use of broadband Internet and high spec PCs, websites with rich content have become the norm. On the other hand, it’s required of site creators to minimize response time because a slow response, even 100 milliseconds, will influence traffic. It’s quite easy and common for Flash content to become bloated. This feature will cover standard SWF tuning techniques in three areas that can be applied to any situation.

  

• Special Report: Report from Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the Center of Provincial Digital Activity

  Digital Creatives in Northern France

  The digital industry in northern France is growing quickly. There’s a large scale, government backed project to promote the digital film industry in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, around the city of Lille. We hopped over to France in the blistering cold weather to bring you the p