Adobe Flash Catalyst has been a part of the news among the Adobe community for some time now. Community experts and evangelists seem to fit Catalyst into a role very easily. They always seem to echo the common thought, which is something like:
"We worked with people in the industry to understand workflow and have brought in a product that would help the designer<->developer workflow much better. At the end of it, the designer is happy that his design is carried on exactly as he had visualized it. The developer is happy that he can concentrate on development, than having to work some extra hours trying to get the design right..."
Speaking to a few people (ranging from designers, developers and managers) to collect their thoughts on including this new tool into their workflow, I felt that workflow problems would still exist to a large extent. Some common points of view are as follows:
- New tool to learn: As easy as Catalyst maybe, it is still something that would need us to learn and train. It may take a day or a year, it is still time consuming.
- Impact on working cost: We have to buy catalyst. I don't think the company will.
- Already good enough workflow: In most companies, the designer gets his way even if he and the developer have to work longer hours, fight bigger battles. If the client wants it and if it HAS to be done according to the way things should be...well.. there is not much of a problem at the end of it.
- Designer or developer or someone else? Who will need to know Catalyst? It is easy for the designer, but he has to create so many designs per day. The developer has his hands full with the actual coding and implementation. Should there be a new position created called – "UI Developer/Catalyst developer". What would he need to be good at? Will my company allow it?
- Catalyst is cool. If my designs can become that much interactive even before the developer gets his hands on it, it is lovely! It is easy and quick.
Well, people say different things all the time. I think Catalyst will become an essential part of the workflow. From my experience as a designer, developer and a project manager, it brings in that missing connect that all of us feel. It saves a lot of time for the developer, who, not only can concentrate on his development work, he can also get a lot of the UI based (simpler) coding (like CSS) done automatically. Designers can reproduce his visualization. For the Project manager, life gets peaceful! Iteration loops can stay with the designer and only get to the next step when the design gets approved.
For the future of Catalyst, I think a project management component integration would be cool. You could have a Project -> UI Comps assigned to designers -> Versions -> Final approved version. The developer can do a check out of the final comp and integrate it into his project in Flash Builder or the Flash IDE. Time is saved as a result and people are happy!
