We’ve all become accustomed to things just working without having to think about it and also to having rich interfaces on the web. We are used to seeing animated menus on DVD’s and are rapidly getting used to seeing interactive menus on Bluray discs. We’re used to animated rich menus on game consoles and its games. So why can’t we have this experience everywhere?
If I switch on my digital TV set-top box at home, it’s far from a rich ‘engaging’ user experience. The interface is dull and dead slow with no connectivity to online information and communities. I always think about what I could do with Flash to have a richer experience Flash only were available on this STB. The same thing goes for the menus in TV’s. How much more could you do if you could ask a Flash designer/developer to make the menu instead of having to write it in some obscure language that offers no richness whatsoever. How much more exciting would it be to control your TV/STB/PVR with a rich connected user interface that immediately gets online reviews, ratings and comments about the TV-shows you are programming?
This is why I think the Open Screen project matters. It’s not just about bringing Flash/AIR to mobile devices, I think it’s about bringing that rich experience that people are used to, everywhere.
Yeah, this is exactly how I feel about the Open Screen project. Let’s hope adoption is massive :)
What I fail to see is how this project will make any difference considering that the companies that agreed to it are extacly the same that were delivering FlashLite on their platform even before and some that weren’t, most notaby Apple, are still not in that list.
@Emanuele: I think the Open Screen project is going to make a huge difference as all partners on the program, signed up to create a consistent runtime across devices. But I really want to emphasize that this is really about more than mobiles.
You are right about the fact that some device manufacturers are still missing from the list. However, we can’t really twist their arms to sign up for the program… If you want a certain manufacturer to sign up for the program, make sure you make your voice heard and tell them about it…
But believe me, it’s going to be really exciting!
Serge, I thought we had already a consistent runtime on devices, that’s what Adobe/Macromedia has been telling since 2003, now we discover it is not true. However, I believe that FlashLite as a half baked Flash platform did already the damage and trying to cash now on something that will eventually have some market penetration relevance in two-three years (because you cannot update devices that fast and manufacturers are not willing to mantain older handsets) is pure speculation, let’s see… Regarding the other points, most TV/STB/PVR are already driven by cool and functional interfaces with market high penetration like Microsoft MediaCenter and Apple FrontRow, none of them supporting Flash as a platform and honestly I don’t see these two companies “opening up their screen” anytime soon, especially after it is clear that Adobe is trying to push Flash/Air/Whatever in the same space they are cashing in.
Plus those manufacturers that aren’t joining on can not blame Adobe anymore for not having a suitable player for their devices. The ball is in their court.
@Emanuele – To me, a consistent runtime means you can run the same code everywhere. With Flash Lite, this is not really the case unless you only build apps targeted at earlier versions of the Flash Player. The Open Screen Project will enable a device runtime that is 100% in sync everywhere. So the Flash Player for devices will have the same capabilities as the PC version.
You are right that market penetration will take some time. However, one of the goals of the OSP is to have a runtime that can be update OTA instead of having to flash your device firmware.
I cannot agree on your point that Microsoft MediaCenter and Apple FrontRow have a high penetration. They may have some market penetration in some regions but certainly not in Europe where I am based. Again… We can’t twist any manufacturers arm to sign up for the OSP.
“Again? We can?t twist any manufacturers arm to sign up for the OSP.”
so where’s the buy-in? where’s the compelling reason for them to join.
your blog post sounds like “build it and they will come” – but that’s dangerous. Eye candy with no substance is pointless – and as has been found with “skip intro”, counter-productive. don’t give us animations and drop shadows for no reason.
“If I switch on my digital TV set-top box at home, it?s far from a rich ?engaging? user experience. The interface is dull and dead slow with no connectivity to online information and communities.”
what’s more important? the functionality or the “engagement”? Using the command line to perform tasks is a woeful ?engaging? user experience … but it’s incredibly powerful.
in other words, the best user experiance is one you don’t notice: “it just works”
eh, my 2c.
@Barry: Don’t forget that ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal have already signed up. So it’s far from a “build it and they will come” project.
On my TV, I don’t want to use command line. I want an “engaging experience” that adds functionality. Right now, my set-top box’s menus are boring and have no added functionality at all. While this box is connected to the internet, it doesn’t use that functionality at all. I want my video on demand service to directly connect to IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes and give me their ratings and reviews. That’s the sort of experience I am looking for which is far from the “skip intro”-experience that you fear.
Sorry I missed this thread whilst it was in full swing, but I wanted to respond the the quite negative responses you’ve been getting Serge.
Barry is of course correct, the ’skip-intro’ idea was a very poor and purely creative idea, which served to put people off Flash sites, but that kind of gratuitous nonsense is well and truely gone from todays Flash sites and applications. We have become more professional and better developers and we have learned from our mistakes.
But the OSP is not about gratuitous eye candy, not about drop shadows, not about aesthetics for the sake of over zealous creatives. It’s about giving EVERYONE a consistent and intuitive user experience. If you’ve all got an iPhone, and I suspect most of you have, then you’ll have experienced exactly what I’m talking about.
Yes Barry, the command line is indeed powerful…if you’re a programmer or a geek, but as these only represent the tiniest preportion of the market place that these companies are trying to sell to, I think having a consistent and intuitively usable interface will make them A LOT more money, and clearly they think so to. And ultimately that means we can make every device equally as sexy to interact with. No exceptions. The world at large will always choose great usability over great functionality. After all, it doesn’t matter how incredible the functionality is if most people can’t use it.