Thinking of designing interactive kiosk applications? Read on...

One of my first multimedia project was designing an interactive information kiosk for a big Canadian retail chain.  This was back in 2001 and there were few really good multimedia authoring tools.  You had your pick of Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash and Designer.  In those days you had no choice but to learn the application's native scripting language and forge ahead.  Flash had ActionScript and Designer had Lingo.  This was before Java and Web 2.0 tools took off.

I designed my kiosk in Flash and learned the application's the scripting language but I wished I could spend more time designing and less time coding.  I didn't really want to become a programmer.

Seems each new release of Flash brought in more coding options and with it more complexity for people who just want to focus on their application's design and usability.   Flash was becoming an online media delivery system and Director became a game development tool.

So what could a designer to do?  They could learn the necessary programming languages or partner up with  programmers.  Partnering is not always a good option.  Programmers aren't designers so there is a lot of time wasted just in communicating back and forth.  This can often lead to higher development costs and project delays.

There had to be a more efficient way.

I tried many software applications that let you create Flash content without (much) coding but none was really geared towards interactive content development.  They were mostly good for creating web sites and scrolling text banners.  I needed something "commercial grade" so I kept looking and eventually I found Flypaper.

Flypaper lets designers create high quality interactive applications quickly and efficiently.  There is no coding involved which means designers can concentrate on the look and feel of their applications.  The content can also be modified and re-published very easily and the results is exported as either Flash or video.

If your project requirements exceed the built-in capabilities of Flypaper, you can simply import third-party Flash content.  Designers can also connect their applications to external data sources like Google Docs, Google Calendar, CSV files, PHP and .NET with no coding.

Flypaper is a really useful tool for any digital signage and interactive kiosk project.  Flypaper's built-in components lets designers focus on the end-product while the software handles all the back-end programming.  Adding buttons, clocks and weather forecasts is as simple as drag and drop.

This is not my first article about Flypaper but I really believe it's one of the best all-around multimedia/interactive content development tool on the market.

It's part of my content development toolkit and I highly recommend it.

 photo credit: jessleecuizon via photopin cc