labs.boulevart

We are currently developing a small AIR application to simplify tracing in flash (and flex)
The idea is pretty much the same as LuminicBox, X-Ray, … but adapted to our needs.

Main features
- Tracing from the browser, IDE or standalone
- Exploring arrays, custom classes, objects, … in multiple depths
- 3 levels for filtering you results (debug, status, error)
- Easy search through your traces

Future wishlist
- Better management of the popups
- Custom classes will output their property names
- Bitmapdata will display a thumbnail
- Sound will add a control bar to test it
- Better design and/or fixing some of the styling errors
- Add an auto-updater

Please note that this is still very much in beta. Errors and unexpected behaviour will occure, but I encourge everyone to use it and send us feedback so we can improve it!
Also note that it is unsigned and does not have an auto-updater yet.
Once i’m back from vacation i’ll fix these things as soon as possible.

Usage
- Add the source files to your classpath.
- Import the classpath:
import be.boulevart.whitefly.Fly;

- Use one of these lines of code to trace your item:
Fly.debug(item);
Fly.status(item);
Fly.error(item);

Screenshot

Download
Whitefly Beta 1

Typo matters - and the people at Vidget are fully aware of that simple (sometimes forgotten) fact. As a designer and xhtml developer its always good to know which typefaces are installed by default on everyone’s computer.

Source: Vidget

Instead of using safe fonts that are installed on all OS’s - CSS perfectly gives us the ability to switch between fonts when one’s not installed. Most of the people are familiar with font-stacks, but only few fully use/implement them.

Here’s a quick example:

h1
{
	font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Trebuchet MS", serif;
}

In this example; we use Helvetica Neue as primary font (default on mac), people that don’t have Helvetica Neue installed will get Arial instead. Simple & smooth. Mind the fact the we’re using Helvetica Neue for a title and not our complete body text.

Since we‘re all big fans of the iPhone and the mobile future in general, we want to help the mobile designer achieving his goals. For those who like to sketch the design/flow of their mobile app or website we present you: sketch paper for the iPhone and Nokia N95.

Besides our interest in the mobile future, we saw what the people at Culturedcode where doing and, I asked myself - “Why aren’t here any sketch papers for e.g. the iPhone?”. Since its a simple thing to do I fired up illustrator and started.

It might be useful when you are brainstorming or trying to find the perfect flow for your app or website.

PDF Files (300dpi):

• Download iPhone sketch paper (.pdf - 5.4Mb)
• Download Nokia N95 sketch paper (.pdf - 6.6Mb)

Photoshop CS3 files (72dpi):

• Download iPhone sketch paper (.psd - 3.1Mb)
• Download Nokia N95 sketch paper (.psd - 4.3Mb)

Here’s what’s on my to do list, but i’m not quite sure about it: iPhone-specific resources you can cut-out; buttons, bars, icons, grids, … - useful or rather overkill?

UPDATE:

A while ago we noticed some iphone interface design kits helping you designing an iphone killer app! Go and check out our blogpost to find out more on our iphone interface design flow!

Suzuki has decided to splash up the world of the city cars and launched a new website for it’s newest smallest: the Suzuki Splash. The Suzuki Splash has some strong characteristics: funky, enough space for your baby and necessities, highly practical for a city car, functional design, … . Not to forget the 5 years warranty.

Boulevart is responsible for design, programming and technical implementation. Site has been build in AS3 in combination with Fluorine for Flash remoting.

Thanks to Bert (design), Indra & Karel (AS3), Kevin (back-end), Kris (Flash Remoting).

On Thursday February 28th, the Adobe Thermo team is coming exclusively to Boulevart. Thermo is an upcoming Adobe product that makes it easy for designers to create rich Internet application UI’s. Thermo allows designers to build on familiar work flows to visually create working applications that easily flow into production and development. The Adobe team will give a sneak peak of Thermo and is very excited to hear the feedback of our design and development team.

Applications created in Thermo are Flex applications that can be loaded directly into Flex Builder, providing a great round trip work flow for designers collaborating with developers. The designer’s work can be incorporated directly into the production application with no loss of fidelity, and designers can continue to refine the design throughout the iterative development process.