I’d like to thank Debbie Fried (@DebbieFried) for pointing me towards this video of Don McMillan’s “How Not to do PowerPowerpoint” stand-up routine. It was fun to watch and reminded me of the conversations I had with our own Scott Stiefvater as he was preparing for MB/I’s “Avoid Causing Death by PowerPoint” class.

If That’s Bad, What’s Good?

Well, whenever someone asks me what I think a PowerPoint presentation should look like, I can’t help …

Flash, well known for its elegant moving images and animations, is the application of choice for creating beautiful websites. But many web developers have scrapped the idea of using Flash for business websites because text that is created in Flash is not always easy to recognize by search engines like Google. Search engine optimization has been, and continues to be, a priority for many businesses. So many web developers have gotten into the habit of settling for two alternatives: the less elegant look of a completely HTML site or a hybrid in which only some of the site elements, …

Rich media is the result of combining text, still graphics, voiceover audio, background music, and video. These elements are combined to create dynamic motion that occurs over time or in direct response to user interaction.

Rich media is powerful because it engages the user and keeps him captivated more so than any other media. It draws users in and makes them part of the experience.

At MB/I, we use Flash—the industry-leading software for creating interactive experiences. We deliver presentations to audiences across platforms and devices. With Flash, we can add interactivity by customizing what each user sees and these same …

A multimedia project has several components that need to be planned for ahead of time. It’s best to have all the necessary assets ready to go before starting the development process. Typically, these are the items that need to be gathered.

1. Branding elements. Provide a style guide to your developer. The guide should go over how to use your logo, what fonts and colors to use, the style of the imagery to use, and even the tone of the content. You will also need to gather the files themselves.

2. Script. The script is the most crucial part of the presentation. …

At MB/I we have a questionnaire we ask our clients to fill out for Flash/multimedia projects. It helps to plan and to collect all of the information needed to put together a proposal. here are are questions we ask.

Part 1: Business Background

Part 2: Project Goals

The use of Flash is not limited to cute little animations on web pages. Flash is a very powerful software that allows for intelligent and useful interactivity. And when Flash integrated video, it increased the possibilities even more.

Here’s how we have used Flash at MB/I:

• Sales presentations
• Product demos
• Software wizards
• Interactive educational pieces
• Screensavers
• Calculators
• “Build your own” scenarios
• Training presentations
• Multi-level portfolios
• Advertising banners
• Tradeshow loops
• Animated cartoon strips
• and of course, animations for websites!

Flash can support deep layers of logic. One of calculators we built was an interactive ROI calculator. The formulas and logic involved in developing took up about 100 8.5″ X 11″ printed pages. One of the longest …

A multimedia project by definition is a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactive content forms. There is a lot to think about when planning a multimedia project.

At MB/I we work on a diverse range of these multimedia projects, from a trade show piece to an hour-long high-end sales presentation. Here’s what these projects have in common in terms of planning.

1. Purpose
A piece that needs to sell has a very different tone from a piece that needs to educate. Understanding the purpose is critical to defining the message, the tone, and the types of content that will …

Flash animations on websites have a bad rap. I attended a meeting yesterday where someone said “Flash is never done right.” I disagree completely. I think this bad rap comes from all of the animated site intros of the recent past. We all got used to quickly finding the “skip intro” button. These intros had their time; a time where cool animation was new and we were more patient. Now, we want content, and we want it quickly.

When Flash is done right, it can communicate  a strong feeling much, much better than a static image can. It can also handle …