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Those guys from Hatchling have obviously been busy buys planning their snowboarding holiday given the new AIR application they have just launched called First Tracks. Hatchling’s first AIR application Flavior got a good review here on RefreshingApps due to it’s good clean design and well thought usability. So I’m happy to say that they have continued to impress with First Tracks. While you are on the hatchlings site, it’s worth playing with some of their Flash games!

Hatchling’s First Tracks is an Adobe Air application that helps you find the best skiing and snowboarding across the US. Get the current conditions, weather reports, and directions to your favorite winter sports destinations from your desktop. This season, make tracks first with First Tracks!

First Tracks is a simple useful AIR application obviously only for those lucky enough to be venturing out the US to indulge in some quality Skiing or snowboarding. I’m not one of them unfortunately but I’m not letting that dampen my spirits!

Under the hood you will find some nice touches and an interface that has a slight iPhone like interaction model. Firstly you are presented with a list of areas in the US, drilling down you get a smaller list of resorts or runs in that area.

For each selected area you get the latest conditions like snow depth, fall in the last 48 hours and a weather forecast. Selecting the location button you then get an interactive Google Map of the area which was not possible until Google recently released the maps API for ActionScript.

Design Eye

The carbon effect background to the application is a carry over from Flaivor and it works well again on this AIR application. It’s the little touches that make this application fun to use. One example is you can change the background image from a selection of four. The animation is smooth and timely.

I like the navigation system here it’s clear and the top level is always visible so you can jump right out if necessary. Google maps integration is great.

I would like to have seen a more graphical way of presenting the weather for an area. One idea could be that the weather icons float around the top of the chromeless app like clouds or snow falling down across the application, now that would be nice!

Technical Eye

This application is built using Adobe Flash, the AIR runtime and the new Google maps API.