RIAs that Rock December 2010

Every year, Adobe MAX becomes the showcase for some of the greatest rich Internet applications with the Adobe MAX Awards. This year in Los Angeles at MAX 2010 was no different. The list of finalists this year included FedEx, HBO, Thomson Reuters, the BBC, Toyota, National Geographic, and more. This is the first article of two in which I examine some of the finalists and their impressive uses of the Adobe Flash Platform.

The Secret Annex
Technology: Adobe Flash

The Secret Annex is an immersive online experience created by LBi Amsterdam and The Anne Frank House. This experience leverages the Adobe Flash Platform to enable users to explore the world of Anne Frank and her family during their time in hiding. To accomplish this, The Secret Annex presents users with a variety of content to help them visualize this time, including a three-dimensional model of the entire annex and surrounding buildings, narrative audio, real photographs from the annex, and three-dimensional models of many of the rooms within the annex.   

While The Secret Annex is different from traditional applications, it enables you to experience history in a way that just wouldn’t be possible with another online technology. Not only does the Flash Platform present the content, but the Flash Media Streaming Server handles the work of delivering the audio and video.

The Secret Annex was the winner of the 2010 MAX Award for Advertising and Branding. It also received an FWA Site of the Day award.

The Secret Annex is available to experience for free today.

Toyota Racing’s Sponsifier 2
Technology: Flash

Toyota Racing’s Sponsifier 2, developed by Resn for Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, is a rich Internet application that enables you to highly customize your own Toyota race car with many advanced controls. In addition to all the graphics included with Sponsifier, you can also upload images from your computer to use on your car.

Not only can you customize a car, but you also have the opportunity to participate in a contest for the best design. For inspiration, you can view a gallery of cars that other users have created. In the gallery, you can link directly to your car, download custom wallpaper of your car, or post an image of your car to Twitter or Facebook. This social integration is the key to spreading this application beyond the boundaries of the browser.

Toyota Racing’s Sponsifier 2 was a finalist for the Adobe MAX 2010 Award in the Advertising and Branding category.

Toyota’s Sponsifier 2 is available to use for free today.

Live Talkback
Technology: Ajax, Flash

Live Talkback is a solution that enables organizations to get instant feedback from their audience. Audience members can use mobile devices to send in their votes, and organizations can present a real-time interface detailing the results of the voting. In addition, Live Talkback enables organizations to brand this interface with their own logos and colors. While this provides a great experience, Live Talkback goes even further by pushing this branding to the mobile interface as well.

Services like Live Talkback are creating new ways for individuals to interact with each other at events. These days, most attendees at events have a mobile phone, and Live Talkback has capitalized on this by using Flash Lite for the primary mobile interface. 

Live Talkback was a finalist for the Adobe MAX 2010 Award in the Multiscreen category.

Live Talkback is a paid service, and you can sign up for an account today.

Conclusion

Adobe MAX brings out the best of the best, and the applications in this article certainly demonstrate that. The power of RIAs still amazes me. They can connect you to history. They can get you up close and personal with a race car. And they can even connect you with people at a conference. No matter what they do, they provide a rich experience that has truly changed the web.

In next month’s article, I will continue to highlight some of the amazing applications that were finalists at this year’s Adobe MAX Awards.