An Empathetic Listener : Expression

Expression 3 – More than You think!

Dan Willis — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:05:26 GMT

One of the best things about working at Microsoft (sorry, it’s about the only way to say it…) are the phenomenal people you meet and in some cases actually get to work with. I was with a “boatload” (pirate joke - you had to be there) of such folk earlier this week at a meeting in San Diego.

To say I learned a lot is an understatement. I took notes as is my style but I left my (paper) notebook on a conference room table and won’t see it until it is returned in the mail this week. In the meantime I want to call out just one of the more interesting folks in our group that I met for the first time in San Diego.

Jason Campbell is a User Experience Evangelist (or UXE in Microsoft-speak) for the West region. UXE’s are on the front line of changing the way we look at data, design, and systems in general. I was initially exposed to their unique contributions by Jason’s colleague, Will Tschumy. Jason and Will are key conduits for Microsoft to the design community in general and to design agencies in particular as they become more crucial to the effective delivery of systems.

This is a tip of the iceberg example, but I was enamored with Jason’s latest video in his series on new features in Expression 3 Blend. In “Intro to Sample Data” Jason takes us through a test drive of Expressions ability to provide sample data for building an application and easily manipulating the interface and data access approaches to the underlying data. No database needed! Enjoy!

Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 Launch

Dan Willis — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:33:09 GMT

Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 will be unveiled at a virtual launch event on July 10, 2009. Attend the event at www.seethelight.com on July 10 to watch the keynote sessions and see new in-depth sessions. Stroll through the customer and partner pavilions in the Exhibition Hall or stop by 'The Visual Kitchen' TV show and watch the chefs as they dish up digital designs and development entrees as part of this exclusively produced online experience.

Enter the "Will Code for Green" Developer Contest

Bing and Gnomedex are sponsoring a Will Code for Green developer contest. Make the world a little better, win US$10,000, plus be featured at Gnomedex. Create a green app using the Live Search API with any tech platform or language.

PING Uses Visualization Technologies to Help Golfers

Dan Willis — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:08:14 GMT

Almost everyone in the golf world is familiar with Karsten Solheim, the founder of PING Golf. Karsten and PING pioneered many of the innovations in club fitting and has long been the key player in the market for custom clubs. Recently, PING embarked on an ambitious effort to radically improve the process of club fitting and to give the consumer a more scientifically accurate and visually compelling fitting experience. Enter nFlight®.

According to the PING website, “nFlight uses PING's proven multi-step fitting processes for metal woods, irons and wedges to guide the fitter through the process. Familiar concepts such as the interview, static measurements and color code remain part of the process. In addition to providing detailed club specifications, nFlight includes a gapping analysis feature to make full set recommendations. By analyzing data from three clubs hit during the fitting session - typically a hybrid, iron and wedge - the software configures a set to produce proper distance gaps between every club.”

This rather dry description masks some wonderful software engineering and visualization techniques inherent in the nFlight app. After pursuing a more “conventional” process for a period of some months, the engineers at PING discovered the power of Microsoft Expression Blend and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Combining these toolsets with Visual Studio 2008, the developers working with their design team were able to achieve significant improvements in developer productivity and developer/designer efficiency. The combination of PING’s years of experience and the scientific (especially physics) principles applied to this effort have made this a superior implementation for the fitter, the customer and PING.

I was excited to see this product come out and validate the Expression/Visual Studio productivity concept and I encourage you to review the excellent resources noted here for more details:

John Mullinax’s blog – Details on the technologies used

Microsoft case studies – White paper and Video

Ping Web Site – nFlight fitting section – Video also

Engineering Details – PING team discusses the science of fitting