Flex Examples: Week 1

Every week I'm going to highlight an example of Adobe Flex technology that I feel showcases the power of this program.

For those who don't know, Flex is an Adobe tool that generates Flash-based content. Whereas Flash began as an animation program that expanded into multimedia, Flex is geared towards generating business applications. Here on this blog I'll locate great uses of this outstanding program and provide links and information regarding their uses.

The inaugural example comes to us from Philips Electronics.

Phillips Electronics is a manufacturer of healthcare, lighting and consumer products. The majority of their website, Royal Philips, is designed in Flash. This includes navigation, image galleries and product information.

An outstanding aspect of their site is their consumer product comparison page. Developed in Flex, this application allows a potential customer an easy way to evaluate TVs and narrow their search by a variety of criteria.

Take it for a test drive here.

Make note of a few clickable options.

• Type
• Philips Exclusives
• Screen Size
• Picture Engine

Every time one of the options is de-selected, the number of TVs is reduced to fit the remaining criteria.

Try this:

1) Select only the 7400 series and only three TVs are left.
2) Narrow the screen size to only TVs between the size of 47" and 52". Now only two TVs are left.
3) Click the Compare checkboxes and select "Compare Products".

Ta daa!

To see another great way Flex can be extended, click on the Buy icon and enter your zip code in the field. Doing so and clicking the arrow will take you to a map and list of locations where you can buy your brand new television set.

How cool is that!