Michelle Yaiser Teaching ActionScript and Application Development

Getting Back to It

Since my last post, life has been full of unexpected opportunities and challenges. They’ve left me with very little time to work on the application I planned to write about here.

Now, the time has finally come to get back to work on this app. This semester I’ll be co-teaching an advanced rich internet application development class and using this application as a teaching example. Students in the class will be working in development teams of three: designer, developer, and project manager. Each team will design, build, and release an RIA by the end of the semester. Each student will be required to be either the designer or the developer for a team and will also have the opportunity to serve as project manager for another team. My colleague Chris MacDonald will be working with the designers in Flash Catalyst. I will be working with the development students in Flash Builder. Together we will be talking about project management, version management, client relations, etc. while working together on sample applications. Its going to be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to it.

Part of the preparation I have been doing for this class has focused on improving my (somewhat non-existent) design skills. Through years of teaching, I have developed a decent eye for critique, but I need to improve my ability to create or tweak a design. So, I started by rereading Robin Williams Non-Designer’s Design & Type Books. Then I stumbled upon what quickly became my new favorite design resource:  Jason Cranford Teague’s Fluid Web Typography. This is a brand new (2010) publication from New Riders that covers web typography and design principles and a variety of current and new techniques for implementing your designs. Thanks to Dale Cruse, I have also been using (OK, just playing so far) Think Ink:Color Unleashed on my iPhone. I forsee someday using this nifty app to create a color palette for my website from the paint job on my race car. I still have a long way to go, but at least I’m one step closer to no longer using the default styles when I build a UI in Flex/Flash Builder.

Classes start next week. Building applications, co-teaching for the first time, and using beta software in the classroom should provide plenty of interesting posts.