Rebecca Carley

IBM
I have just read that IBM will be releasing a mobile phone that changes the way it works and adapts to each persons lifestyle. For example, if you walk into a metting room the phone will automatically go on silent, how amazing is that. And if your phone detects that your going to be home late it might automatically send you a pizza menu with special prices.

This then lead me to wonder, wouldnt it be cool if phones could actually read what you are thinking. Eventually technology will bring us this innovation, its already being developed with games. So lets just say you have a special headpeice, like a blue tooth ear peice, which was on you at all times and when you have a thought “I want to call Olivia” your phone will automatically dial that number for you!

On the IBM site I alrady read about 3-D internet, and how games like Second Life have created an online 3-D environment. So imagine being able to walk around in the internet as you would in real life, well you can with second life, but how about taking it a step further! So you would have your 3-D self, in a 3-D world walking around a shopping center…how bizzar!

I think the world is going to be a scary place in the future…….

After looking at the concept development blog and visiting : http://www.glumbert.com/media/makeover
I thought I would have a look on you-tube to see what else is out there in relation to photoshop make-overs, and you would be amazed!

Have a look at this video for a great example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkdXoGEUVRk
It shows how to turn a regular photo into a playboy shot! And I especially love how the beat of the music goes with the video – not sure if this was done on purpose or not, but its still fun to watch.

Dove Add
The above link is something you may have seen on tv before, its a commercial for dove, and it shows how they make people over for tv! its amazing! It makes women all over the world feel better about the way they look.

Photoshop model
The above link is also amazing, it shows how they can turn a really large woman into a very slim women just by using photoshop!

Beauty is a Product of Photoshop!
I love the title of this one, it makes so much sence! next time I read a magazine I will try to image what people would have looked like before their photoshop make-over!

In conclusion, never believe what you see!

One last link to keep you going!

Lightbox is a great script which can be added to your website to display images in a very cool and professional way.

Click here to goto the Lightbox 2 web address

I have implemented lightbox 2 within my portfolio website and I find it works fantastically on my PC at home, however, viewing on a mac is a problem.

The problem is that i have a flash banner on my website, and when you click on a light box thumbnail image to view its larger form it conflicts with the banner.

For my portfolio website, I will have a few pages which will need to be able to hold a lot of images(thumbnails) and the user will be able to click on these images to view them in a larger scale.

Airtight interactive offers a free downloadable version of Simple Viewer. The simple viewer pre-loads images and also allows to fast uploading. This is something that I will definitely look into using for my website – if the design is able to be customised.

On the Bras N Things website, there is the ability to click on product to view it in a larger scale. Have a look at this link for an example: Ultra Soft Gown
I have seen this technique used in a number of websites and would love to find out how its done, so if anyone knows, please let me know!

Growing Gifts also has a pretty interesting way of displaying images Click here to have a look! And I particularly like the way this site displays the inlarged version of each image – check it out to see what I mean!

I thought it would be relevant for me to do a bit of research on the use of flash within websites and the issues it may present to the viewers.

Firstly I had a look on Wikipedia for some basic information on the issues of flash within websites, and below are my conlcusions on a few of the issues:

A current issue with flash on websites is that some viewers may have flash disabled or not installed on their computer/webbrowser.
A way to get around this is to have a peice of code on the website which detects whether or not the viewer has a flash player installed, and if not it can direct them to download it.
In the case of a flash blocker being istalled on a webbrowser, usually the blocker will notify the viewer that the page that they are viewing contains flash and often gives them the option to view the flash on the website they are currently on.

Another issue that I read about is “accessibility”. If someone is ision impared they may find viewing a flash site difficult. A screen reader is unable to read flash content. However apparently in version of flash 6 and higher, there are some answers to this problem…I just need to find out what that is. Accessibility isnt a huge issue in terms of my website as it is to be viewed predominately by people who are in the design industry (potential employers, designers etc) so having content on the site which is able to be read by a screen reader is not a HUGE must.

Something which is fairly important when creating a website is search engine indexability. Search engine bots connot read the content within flash files and therefore makes it difficult for a flash site to be indexed correctly in a seach engine. When I have created flash sites in the past I have found it usueful to create only some elements in flash an leaving textual sections in HTML. For example, create the animated banner in flash, text in HTML and anyother interactivity/animations in flash. This technique has proven fairly effective in the past.

According to Wikipedia, the latest version of flash – CS3 has corrected this problem and developers can publish flash fies with meta tags that index individual flash movie content.

Site Point Article – Flsh fast track failure
The above article basically goes through the same issues as wikipedia, but it also talks about what flash should be used for and how. For example, it states that flash is good for:

• Visual Product Explainations
• Interactive maps and diagrams
• Non-essential enhancements

Another site of interest is: SEO Friendly Flash
This site talks about google and how to optimise flash sites to be found by search engines.

Other sites of interest:
Ebizmba Best Flash Sites

• In particular have a look at this awesome site: The Blue Storm
• And this one: creaktif
• And abother: AgencyNet