D&AD: 85% of the Winning Web Sites Use Flash
The winners of The D&AD Professional Awards have been announced. Below is a summary of the winners of the “Digital Design” category. 13 web sites are on the list, 11 of them require Flash.
It’s 2012. Mobile is about to overtake desktop. Every new Mac, iPhone and iPad is shipped without Flash support. And this is what the hacks of the advertising world recommend their clients to spend money on.
Web Sites in the Digital Design Category
| Title | Client | Technology |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Dreams of Black | Rome | WebGL |
| 3LiveShop | Tre | Flash |
| Dig Deeper | HBO | Flash |
| The Museum of Me | Intel | Flash |
| MINI Maps | MINI France | Flash (on Facebook) |
| Uniqlo NYC Now | Uniqlo | Flash |
| A New Warrior | Greenpeace | Flash |
| Philips Obsessed with Sound | Philips | Flash |
| Dots Now | Honda Motor | Flash |
| Magic | Menicon | Flash |
| BBC Homepage | BBC | Web Standards |
| Spent | Urban Ministries of Durham | Flash |
| Wall of Fame | Edding International GmbH | Flash |
Non-web site winners
| Title | Client | Technology |
|---|---|---|
| Tram Sightseeing app | Västtrafik | iPhone App |
| Guardian iPad Edition | The Guardian | iPad App |
| Pearl GTL Interactive Model | Imagination | Other |
| Mill Touch | The Mill | Other |
| Connecting Lifelines | Honda Motor | Not found |
Fibonacci in the New Prometheus Trailer
Whilst watching the new Prometheus trailer this morning, I discovered some familiar design patterns like the Fibonacci sequence and grid layouts. Someone on the production team clearly did his homework.
Using the Device Orientation API to Guess Proximity
The Device Orientation API of HTML5 tells us the orientation of the user’s device at any given moment. However, in some controlled environments it can also be used to guess a device’s position in the room.
Upperdog was recently tasked with designing and developing an (iPad) web app for one of the big healthcare companies. It would be used as a sales tool at conventions and exhibitions and when not in the hand of a sales representative it would be mounted on the walls of the exhibition booth.
The idea was to turn the app’s own “screensaver” on as soon as the iPad was mounted on the wall, but since the iPad doesn’t have a RFID or NFC chip, how can we tell when it’s mounted on the wall? We used HTML5′s Device Orientation API.
The angle of the books differ slightly. Using the Device Orientation API we can tell which book the iPhone is lying on. The colors are pre-defined.
The solution is not perfect and it’s just qualified guessing, but it works remarkably well. By adding a slight delay to the screensaver we can make sure that it’s not turned on as part of a larger hand motion.
This is in no way a replacement to proper near field communication, but in our controlled environment — the exhibition booth — it was all we needed to tell if the iPad was mounted on the wall or not.