If I'm hiring someone who needs to have Flash experience and will work in Flash environments, that Flash intro has made the difference, but I evaluate it at the same level as the rest of their portfolio: 1) it's theirs and 2) it's reflective of their knowledge of Flash (be it development, interaction, or visual design - whatever appropriate to the job).
If I'm hiring someone who doesn't need that experience, I'm still super critical of it - often I find someone has grabbed it from someplace, edited to their needs; but doesn't have the technical prowess to actually make that intro reflect the IxD or IA or Visual Design I'm hiring for. So that's a big negative when the Flash is there for "look, you are hiring for someone who deeply understands interaction, but the working bits of my portfolio do not reflect any of my knowledge." I've hired two folks that had Flash intros (yes, I remember both) - both theirs, rock solid, and reflected their knowledge in what I was hiring for...the work SUPPORTED their portfolio. I've discard 100s of portfolios because the Flash work made me worry about whether they had the knowledge needed for what I was hiring for...the work UNDERMINED their portfolio...you know the butterfly that comes across with some clever inspirational quote and then proceeds to take 120 seconds to load 20x20 thumbnails bouncing across the screen that you then have to do some non standard behavior to open and then they terminate as unreadable 60x60 images in new windows. Becky Reed, IxD, Healthwise -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alan Wexelblat Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 7:33 AM To: IXDA list Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Is a Flash-intro to a personal portfolio stillgood/relevant? Let's assume that you've done the proper work to provide a "Skip Intro" button. Let's further assume that you've done at least the minimum to make your content accessible to people without the Flash player. The question I ask, then, is: does having a Flash intro to a personal site, which may include one's portfolio or resume, make sense in today's job market and design environment? Or does this brand the designer as someone stuck in the last decade? As usual, I suspect the answer is "it depends"; what I'm really interested in is exploring issues around how we present ourselves in online presences and the Flash-intro or Flash-site is a method I still see from time to time, though not nearly as much as I used to. Best regards, --Alan ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
