Lately, we’ve had a lot of requests from clients to add videos to their website. A year ago, we would have quickly converted to Flash video, slapped it in a player and, voila! But things are a bit different these days. With people browsing the web more frequently on their mobile devices, we need to make sure their experience is gratifying and make online video accessible.

So, we’re now providing a variety of options for website video integration into interactive websites. All the options are still pretty quick to implement but the most versatile option gets a bit technical. This option includes having to render at least two video formats that are html5 friendly and a flash fallback for browsers that don’t yet support html5 video.

We’re also quoting a number of projects that utilize new html5 coding and will perform a lot of interactive actions with Javascript. In html5, we can also use cue points in the video to synchronize text, imagery and javascript functions. With this advanced web coding, we’re able to give all users of the Internet a fun and unique experience wherever they happen to be browsing.

A  plea for sanity.

There is great anxiety among business owners about what’s coming down the pike in the way of new taxes, new regulations and how this uncertainty will affect each business and its ability to keep a competitive edge in this global economy. So the attitude is wait and see. I know this from talking to clients and other business owners. Why expand, why invest if it does not impact your bottom line positively?

At DDA, we are in the midst of making some changes because we have staff changing hours and one person leaving so she can be a full time mom to her three growing children. So for starters, we have an ad looking for a new graphic designer. It is scary to see how many people are applying for the posting who have 20-25 years of experience, had their own graphic or marketing business and had to close shop. Then there are the resumes from as far away as Alaska and California, and today a designer wrote from Croatia. All told there are over three hundred applicants (and counting) for one entry level position. And the posting has been up for only two weeks.

This does not bode well for the economy. We are typical of many small businesses. Owners who are very involved in the day-to-day work, crew who work tirelessly to produce a great product, a general attitude of “we are in this together and we will triumph”, but the business climate is stuck in reverse, and the constant political wrangling continuing to polarize the country makes confidence building almost impossible.

If each small business could hire even just one full time unemployed person today it would go a long way to changing attitudes and perceptions. There is nothing more demoralizing then being unemployed.

Let’s not collectively succumb to the ANTS mentality. (Don’t know what that means, Google Kill The Ants and learn).

The past few days I’ve been working on the initial coding for an image library tool which will allow users to search, select and save an image to their computer. The main file is created in Flash using ActionScript3. We then use MDM Zinc to extend Flash’s capabilities with {mdm}Script3.0 programming. To top it off, on the MAC platform, we need to use integrated AppleScript to run commands and methods for handling the file transfer. The end result will be a great tool for those who require image libraries to assist in helping the mentally disabled learn and adapt to our ever-changing and complex world.

At DDA, we are knowledgeable and skilled in a number of digital mediums and formats, enabling us to produce high-quality interactive websites, virtual medical simulations, eCommerce websites, iPod and iPhone friendly websites, medical videos, corporate videos, and a number of other digital marketing products.