Macromedia.com Progress Report: Beta 1

I’m rather impressed with the way Macromedia is handling the

less-that-stellar response to their new web site. In sort of a

“oh-that-was-just-a-beta” move, they’ve released beta 2, which is a vast

improvement over the original release. They’re documenting what

they’ve learned. The summary is here.

Excerpts:

First we learned (again) that itÂ’s the experience (stupid). You canÂ’t

learn that lesson enough.

Our first key lesson from Beta 1 is that there is a distinct

difference in how people interact with content compared with an

application.

The most successful sites will walk the delicate balance of using

Macromedia Flash and HTML together to create engaging, effective

experiences.

I’m a fan of ColdFusion and Flash, but I’m typically very skeptical of

Macromedia. My skepticism could diminish if they can finally admit

that Flash may not save the world, but can play an important role in

it.