One word: cooperation.
This was the lait motif of this Adobe Max conference held in Milan this year.
The Adobe strategy is to create just one big set of tools (software) for designers and developers, that will really help them to be fast and effective doing their job. That’s why software as Illustrator, InDesign really talk to each other now. The new Adobe CS4 collections have inside everything we need to create 2d, 3d, video, animation projects. But the really good news is that designer and developer will really work together in the future and this is a big thing, believe me!:)
Adobe new technologies will help to fill the gap between the two worlds, with Flash Catalyst and Flex Gumbo designers and developers can create RIA with a different approach and this will streamline the project workflow. Designers can now create an entire interface using Illustrator, Photoshop or Fireworks and import the project into Flash Catalyst, so that every single element will be part of the skin and it can be customized with all possible effects. The generated code can be easily modified by a developer, they will have FXG file in common to work with. Flash Catalyst is only a preview version, but we can already use it to simplify the skinning procedure in our projects and to start to really coop with developers speaking a common language, so let’s try!
Another big thing was the use some company did of Adobe Air technology to reinforce a brand of a client creating animated widgets, the idea is that those widgets can implement a website traffic bringing contacts to it. A widgets must be more like a game you can play with and it has to be really good looking, that’s why icons, effects, colors and graphics in general play a key role in creating an Air application that people will want to install on their desktop and use constantly.
It has been a nice surprise to find out that 3D tools now are even inside Photoshop and Flash and that they are working more and more as they do inside 3d software, so a designer can create really nice graphics and effects for a project with all this new functionalities. In flash there are other interesting changes as the Bone tool that will help a lot to create animations and the motion tween function that now is so simple to add.
Costumers and users nowadays are really demanding and we must pay more attention to details when we work on projects , all these tools and software can help us to create effective applications, adds, videos or every kind of work we are supposed to do, the common aim is to work faster and to spend more time in creating than in trying to understand how to use the tools we have, Adobe has always been really good in designing their software interface and now they are trying to do more to help all of us to produce high quality works and I think they are doing it the right way;)