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Creating a Flash Lite fretboard quiz app

I was inspired to write this article by the disconnect I experienced between reading about authoring Flash Lite content and actually building an application. I've found many online descriptions of how to create mobile applications to be less than approachable; they often feature paragraphs of predictions on the mobile marketplace alongside confusing tables of available devices, supported file formats, and so on. Although there is some conflicting information available online, after doing some fairly thorough investigating I was pleased to discover that when you get down to it, the process is actually pretty easy. In defense of these earlier authors, I believe that the necessary pieces to make Flash Lite development easy for the typical (North American) designer have only just fallen into place. I'll describe these advances as quickly as possible, and then I'll provide the steps I used to create a simple app I designed for my own use to pass the time on the subway—to reinforce my memorization of the notes on the guitar fretboard.

My secondary purpose in writing this article is to share what I discovered in the process: Writing a small application for your own use is a fun exercise, and can result in the creation of something that you'll actually use on a regular basis. Creating an application for your own use allows you to tailor the design and functionality specifically to your needs. Since you are the target audience, you can choose the level of complexity and feature set to implement. Don't feel limited by industry standards for other mobile applications. Think outside normal conventions of other mobile content you've seen, and focus instead on providing utilities and content that you personally find engaging. You can design your application for general usability, or make it very specific to achieve a personal goal that previously only existed in your daydreams. Develop the design and functionality in the way that you (the mobile device user) find most compelling. Go nuts. When you're sitting on the subway at 2 AM, it may end up being the most interesting thing you have to do.

For the purposes of this article, I'll write directly from my own mobile development experiences. As with most areas of development, there are many ways something could be accomplished. However, I'll stick to the instructions required for building this simple fretboard application, rather than providing a full treatment of the various options available. Please note that this is just one strategy for building this type of mobile application, and you are not limited to using this approach as you design your own games and interactive content.

Requirements

In order to make the most of this article, you'll need the following software and files:

Flash CS3 Professional

• Try
• Buy

Device Central CS3

• Learn more

A Flash Lite-enabled phone

• Learn more

Sample files:

• fretboard_quiz_app.zip (ZIP, 12K)

Prerequisite knowledge

Prior experience working in the Flash authoring interface is useful. Some knowledge of using and developing for the Nokia S60 series is also helpful. You should be unafraid of Bluetooth.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

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