Porting between different device types

While the handsets proved pretty easy, we had a bit more fun going between a Nokia S60 and the iRiver U10 multifunction MP3 player. Here we had a non-phone device that uses a very different UI and experience for navigation: a four-way-only click system as opposed to four-way with "clickable select."

For this exercise, we first went back to the drawing board before starting any Flash development. We sketched out the screens as they appeared in natural progression, and looked at the logical directions that people would need to move through the application (see Figure 3). Storyboarding and flow-charting can really help when looking at existing content and how to implement a new UI scheme with it. Of course, this is a good thing to do anytime you're planning a new game or application!

Figure 3. Storyboarding and flow-charting an application

The iRiver U10 has a "horizontal menu" system like the Apple iPod, where you can do things like move up and down in a list of options. To select something, you have to click to the right. If you want to go back, or move out of a selection, you click back to the left.

We carried this through to the flow of the game—selecting options was always done by moving to the right, and quitting was done ultimately by clicking left. We could achieve this because the content didn't really require button clicking to do things like "fire a missile" in a game or anything, so the job was made that much easier. Figure 4 compares the S60 menu system, where you move up and down through a list the click to select, with the menu system for the U10, where moving up and down, and left and right are actually "clicking" the selections also.

Figure 4. Going from the S60 menu system to the U10 menu system

Where to go from here

Creating mobile content has been made a whole lot easier with Flash on a lot of levels. But the fragmented nature of the mobile and handheld device market means that you can't escape porting your content if you intend it to run on multiple handsets or devices. With some thought and logical planning, however, and with the flexibility of the Flash authoring environment, you shouldn't find this to be too much of a drain on resources.

For more examples of porting across mobile devices, check out these articles in the Mobile and Devices Developer Center:

• Best Practices for Porting Flash Animation to Mobile Phones with Flash Lite
• Launch Fighters – Part 3: Porting Launch Fighters to a Mobile Phone
• Developing a Cross-platform Flash Game for Dolce & Gabbana
• Developing and Adapting Flash Games for Flash Lite 1.1

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