Useful free stuff

If you are interested in getting a head start on Flash 9 and ActionScript 3, you can download Adobe Labs Flash 9 preview (Windows only).

It will allow you to develop in AS2 (and will let you compile your existing projects) as well as AS3. It looks and feels a lot like Flash 8 but includes a much richer feature set if you use AS3. I tried it out with Lab 1 and it works great.

Other useful tools are:

• Freemind Mindmaps for designing your projects and organizing your thoughts –even your notes on ActionScript.
• There’s a free swf viewer for your MindMaps so you can share them with others on the web. Here’s a demo of this and you can navigate to download it here.
• GIMP is a free image authoring tool.
• Inkscape is a free vector illustration tool.

These are all high quality tools comparable to more expensive tools. And all of these sorts of tools are indispensible for interaction design work.