Adobe Flash Catalyst is currently in its second beta, and I thought I would try it out.

The product is designed to be used between design and development teams, if your end product is Flash. I don't work in Flash, and know very few Flash developers to try, so why would I bother using Catalyst?

As a UI Designer, I work with many front-end and back-end developers. I will often create wireframes depicting page interactions, and will move-on to specify a higher-fidelity design. I've found that one of the more-difficult things to communicate are interactions or animations with moving parts. It's sometimes too late after a component is built to say "no, it should move like this".

After a few hours of playing with Adobe Flash Catalyst, I can say that it’s not as fast for rapid prototyping (as Fireworks or iPlotz) but once you learn the basics, it is fast for showing page interactions, and even animations within those interactions.

Here's a teeny, quick example I built. (on a parked domain)

To Summarize, I'm trying to use Catalyst to better-communicate to developers and clients, by showing advanced interactions on a wireframe.

Exporting
I thought I would use the exported SWF file within a Confluence wiki, but considering there are so many linked files, it looks like the exported files should be installed on a traditional hosted environment. I may even consider running interaction demos locally, while connecting to clients via WebEx/Skype.

You can also export a complete, installable AIR application, which is way-more portable.

Try it out!