Wanted: Flex Designers
Flex has been around a while now and is ramping up in terms of popularity. I had a handful of Flex projects last year, all of which were a positive experience, and I have more lined up for this year. But while Flex has been embraced quite happily by the Coders (mainly because it is the first decent ActionScript IDE) I’m not convinced it has penetrated our symbiotic co-species; the Designers.
For all Adobe’s claims about improving workflow with the use of Flex Builder, which it certainly has for writing code, I’m not sure the way of creating components and skins for Flex (which cannot be done easily without one of Adobe’s other products) is quite as instinctive. The reason I suspect this is because for every Flex project I have worked on we have had real difficulty finding a suitably skilled Designer.
One of the stigmas associated with Flex is that every Flex site you see on the web, looks like a Flex site. So many times you see the default loader, default buttons and even the default grey colour scheme, which suggests to me the Designers are nowhere to be seen on these projects.
So if you are a Flex Designer reading this, or a Flash Designer who isn’t scared off by Flex, please get in touch. Especially if you are in the Brighton or Birmingham area and are affordable. I have projects you can be helping me with right now.
And Adobe, listen up; Flex isn’t going to change the world until we can get the Designers on board. So perhaps you might want to make it a little easier for them to work with it.
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January 14th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
am freelance designer check out my site http://www.asim.net.pk
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:31 am
Good morning,
I examined the text about Flex very carefully.
I think that is really difficult to work with Flex without a specialist or a skilled laborer!
Every time you find an adapted designer you should employ him or her immediately!
Two designers are often better than one single person because they work in a team and it is always better, if you want to solve problems as quick as possible!
Thank you
February 4th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Flex was never meant to be used by designers.
Flex is an application development IDE. It allows **developers** to incorporate elements provided by designers ( skins, stylesheets, SWC etc ) to quickly integrate the design into the final project.
For this same reason, Adobe is not trying to make Flex “better for designers”. And if it is, they’re certainly something doing as just as a some ‘icing the cake’ to please some users and sell a bit more.
The right way to improve the designer-developer workflow is to create a better **designer** tool ( and not developer tool that is designer friendly) and that’s precisely what Flash Catalyst is all about.
February 4th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Flex was never meant to be used by designers.
Flex is an application development IDE. It allows *developers* to incorporate elements provided by designers ( skins, stylesheets, SWC etc ) to quickly integrate the design into the final project.
For this same reason, Adobe is not trying to make Flex “better for designers”. And they it is, they’re certainly just trying to please folks and sell a few more licenses.
The next step in improving designer-developer workflow is to create a better *designer* tool ( and not a developer tool that is designer-friendly) and that’s precisely what Adobe Flash Catalyst is all about.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Here is one example of styled/skinned/customized Flex site:
http://www.pconline.bg
there are 2 things left from the default Flex style – the default loader and the default scrollbar.