Flash Catalyst
Adobe Creative Suite the creative professionals bread and butter tool set, has yet another product added to the tool belt - Adobe Flash Catalyst. I have been keeping an eye on this product for a while (I played with the beta version of it) so I'm quite excited to see how the full release version works. The tool is meant to act as a bridge for Flash with Adobe's visual programs Illustrator, Photoshop or Fireworks without the need of programming. Instead of being bogged down in the development of Flash coding the tool is meant to bring interactivity to visuals produced in Illustrator, Flash or Photoshop in a quicker fashion without the need for coding knowledge. This would enable a designer to quickly prototype rich interactions without having to divorce the actual interaction from the visuals and branding. For anyone whose ever tried to prototype rich interaction in a static format (like wireframes) they can relate on the fact that it's difficult task indeed; and a bit of a oxymoron. Hopefully I will be able to get a copy here at work to test out.