Aviary

Aviary.com is a suite of online Web 2.0 applications for creative designers. All of the applications are written in Flash and entirely browser-based. Aviary consists of the following applications: Phoenix (Image Editor) Peacock (Visual Laboratory) Toucan (Color Palette Editor) and Raven (Vector Graphics). The application suite is designed to provide the same functionality as the suite of design applications available from Adobe, but at a much lower cost. Aviary launched into public beta as A.viary.com in February 2008. The site emerged from beta as Aviary.com in November 2008. The site was the brainchild of Avi Muchnick, the creator of Worth1000.com, an online collaboration site for creative designers. The company is headquartered in Long Island, NY. Long-term plans include the addition of a font editor, audio and video editing tools. These applications will be released to premium members in beta form as they are developed. The applications on Aviary provide most of the same functionality as their Adobe counterparts. The Phoenix image editor is similar to Adobe Photoshop as well as another online image-editing tool, Pixlr.com. The major difference between Phoenix and Photoshop is response time, with Photoshop being much quicker. Phoenix is also slower than its Web 2.0 counterpart Pixlr.com, especially when first loading. Aviary has a very Web 2.0 look and feel. General navigation on the site is quite fast, but the applications can take as long as a minute to load over a broadband connection. Load times can be decreased using a Firefox extension that is available to premium members of the site. Navigation is obvious and intuitive, with a top menu bar containing sub-menus. The site is well organized and there is no advertising displayed on the site. The site maintains three different blogs – a Product blog, an Idea blog and a Microblog on Twitter. Registration is required to do anything useful at the site, such as saving of edited images. The registration process is straightforward, asking for username, password and email address. Basic file manipulation can be performed with a free membership, but files cannot be saved to a local hard disk and all files are visible to other members. A Pro membership, which costs $15 per month, is required in order to keep files private. Pro membership also allows enhanced file manipulation, access to more features, access to premium tutorials, and access to applications still in beta. PayPal is the only form of payment accepted for a Pro membership. Aviary is recommended to anyone with broadband access who wishes to have access to a complete suite of graphics applications. Although the monthly costs build up over time, most of the same functionality of Adobe’s products can be achieved at a much lower cost. The application interfaces are less complicated than their Adobe counterparts, and extensive help and tutorials are available on the site. There is an active user community and an excellent array of forums, with a forum devoted to each of the applications. There is also an online chat among Aviary users available for instant help and advice. There is a large collection of shared designs available on the site. Rights for derivatives of these works go to the person modifying them, so users can edit something that they find on the site and have the rights to the resulting design. Premium members have complete control over whether their work is public or private.