Ever since Aviary made its first appearance, it has caught the attentions of thousands of web users’ and reviewers. In my opinion, what is great about the tools Aviary has to offer is that they are created by Adobe programs (Flex, Flash, etc) but to some extend they are becoming competitors to Adobe programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc). So… my biggest question was, will Aviary (or anybody else) release something that will become competitor(s) to Flex or Flash?
Admittedly, I was half joking when I asked that question. There is no way you can create a Flash IDE built with Flash technology, right? That didn’t make any sense to me.
However my jaw dropped when I saw a online Flex-built Flash editor. The tool is called Wix. Basically you can create a simple-structured page-based web site or widget using Wix’s web-based editor. Read the review, or even better, get an account and check it out yourself. (Find the button “CLICK HERE TO GET INVITED” on the page.)
OK. Let’s step back. It is not a Flex-built Flash authorizing tool per se. I still don’t think that is possible yet. At least not now. But think about Wix, it is opening many doors to all the Web 2.0 users.
[+] It publishes Flash sites, thus is taking advantage of all the benefits Flash player has to offer. It is the most widely-distributed plug-in, it is cross-platform, cross-browser. It can be multi-media. It offers powerful interface. It’s RIA.
[+] It solves an issue common Flash sites (at least most of them) encounter – SEO.
[+] It is free (for now). For people who want to build simple Flash sites, but don’t want to spend $700 on Flash IDE, this is great.
[+] It is easy to use. The UI is beautifully-designed. It hides the confusing Flash IDE’s timeline and library from the users, instead users have in-context tool boxes. I think it won’t take long before anybody could manage to make a website in Wix, compared to a pretty big learning-curve in Flash IDE.
[+] Better than Flash IDE, it comes with ready-made clip-arts and pre-built slideshow and video players for laymen. You can also embed media from popular sites such as Flickr, Youtube, etc. Soon, the entire www will be your library.
Wix is an easy-to-use web-content editor. It is great for:
[+] people, especially pre-college teenagers, who want to make good looking and multi-media presentations, but cannot afford (time- and money-wise) expensive IDEs.
[+] small businesses that want to build quick online portfolios to show case their work.
[+] personal albums and newsletters, especially when you are already sharing content on social networking sites such as Flickr, youtube, etc.
Wix is not for me, or any professional Flash designer/developer. What I cannot live without in my Flash websites includes:
[+] Scalability with dynamic content. I have been using XML as my data layer in almost every project I do, be it small or big project. I enjoy the MVC paradigm.
[+] customized transitions between clicks. To me, nothing on a webpage should pop in/out. That is a big differentiator between RIA and (most) HTML sites.
To sum up, I will use the following video of this Sushi machine as my comment to Wix. Hats off to Wix.
