The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

re: The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

Bob Fisher — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:39:02 GMT

I think Microsoft's push on the 'designer front' is misguided, primarily because it greatly overestimates the presence of graphical designers within most software development organizations. In my experience of many years, there are most often too few good software developers on each team and no corporate interest in funding adequate QA resources, let alone a graphical designer as an added team member.

So, the reality is different than Microsoft would have us believe. The importance of XAML, WPF and Silverlight is undeniably that the best of software developers will themselves have to expand their horizons to include much-improved graphical design skills - those that continue to rise to the top will take on the dual role of graphical designer and software developer. The issue was never that the best of the best can not do both, but that the technology base did not make the dual role as possible as it needed to be - and anachronisms like Flash only furthered misconceptions regarding a dichotomy between designers and developers.

Microsoft's focus on this currently unnecessary division of labor and efforts to ease collaboration between what was previously two groups is unfortunate. I trust the future will prove out that there were far more developers capable of excellent graphical design than there were designers capable of being excellent software developers - and pure economics will, as always, mean that one contributor be hired where two were previously required...

re: The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

tims — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:13:06 GMT

Bob, you make some excellent points here. Building the business case for good design (whether graphical, functional or interactional) is a challenge in many organizations today. In many cases, as you suggest, developers will wind up having to broaden their skill base to incorporate a greater focus on UI. I think the whitepaper makes it clear that there are indeed some folk who can straddle these roles with some success; we've started to use the term "devigner" internally as one form of shorthand for this hybrid role. Our experience is that WPF "devigners" are in extremely short demand, are highly prized by the organizations that have them and can command a very high market rate for their skills. So if you have the capacity to grow in this role, go for it - you'll do very well!

Nevertheless, as Chad Brown's interesting commentary on this blog post indicates [1], this isn't enough in many cases. While it's a dangerous stereotype to presume that no developers have an eye for design, the reality is that if an organization doesn't value design, they won't prize having a developer who can do it any more than they prize a specialist designer. And we should give the design industry credit for the expertise they have - just because other people can do this work, doesn't mean that they are the best at doing it. I've got a digital SLR camera that I know how to use quite effectively, but that doesn't put me on an equal footing with a professional photographer.

I'm intrigued to see whether your final prediction holds true. I think we're agnostic as an organization on this front - we simply want folk to be able to build great software. There's no vested interest for us as a company in forcing others to divide this into two roles. Every MSDN Premium subscriber has a copy of both Expression Blend and Visual Studio 2008, and they function very well together as tools.

Thanks for your thoughtful contributions, Bob - it's an interesting discussion that will no doubt continue.

Tim

[1] http://blog.identitymine.com/blogs/chad_brown/archive/2007/12/08/the-new-iteration-xaml-love.aspx

re: The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

Rob Courtney — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:18:35 GMT

Hi, I work for a gold cert partner and we are in the lucky position to have a skilled designers but we still have a missing link! You mentioned that "Every MSDN Premium subscriber has a copy of both Expression Blend and Visual Studio 2008" but our designers are asking for Expression Design so they can create some content. Apparently it isn't classed as a development tool and therefore isn't included in MSDN. We don't want all the media stuff that Expression Studio gives but it doesn't like there is an alternative.

re: The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

Chad Carter — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:07:29 GMT

I believe that typical Windows development shops will have a hard time seeing the benefit of having a full time designer. It was simply drag some buttons on a form and be done with it. I was in that environment for a few years.

I then moved to ASP.NET around 2000 (still called ASP+ - even before Beta 1) and have been working on ecommerce applications since then. In the web world, it is ALL about the design. Silverlight will shine through here and then the WPF shops will catch on. It is so aggrevating for both the designer and the developer to see a great piece of artwork that could work so great as a design and be limited by the technology (or knowledge on how to utilize that technology) to the point that the end result is no where near what was wanted.

Having the designers work in the same tools that the developers do is absolutely wonderful. I think the future is going to be excellent because of this move to have the designers and developers working from the same assets.

No one can be an excellent developer and an excellent designer. One will be stronger in one field or the other. Today, trying to find that mix is very hard. Because of this technology, it will become easier to find that person because the tools are easier (and more accessable) to use from a developer's stand point. Plus it makes it easier for the designers to understand where the hooks go and why naming things a certain way may be beneficial. This will cause some designers to learn some code and some developers to learn some design skills. Regardless, for projects that require outstanding design work and outstanding architecture and development work, there will be two (groups of) people doing the work - designers and developers.

re: The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

tims — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:11:36 GMT

Rob, the full Expression Studio is included as part of Visual Studio Team Suite / MSDN Premium; see here for details:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718657.aspx

It's also available as a separate product. However, you're correct that Expression Design can only currently be purchased as part of the full Expression Studio suite.

re: The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

Bob Fisher — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:10:41 GMT

I don't disagree with the majority of what Chad indicated, with the exception of his claim that no one can be an excellent developer and and excellent designer. Absolutely untrue.

I am reminded of the days prior to the dot-com debacle, when times were good and no one was talking about software development and desgin moving overseas. In those days, every company seemingly had a CTO, one or more architects, UI developers, infrastructure developers, database specialists and so on and so on. Then things went bust. Fewer and fewer companies maintained CTO positions, architect positions became much harder to come by and most developers who were still employed found themselves pushed to do everything from database design, infrastructure development, UI design and development, testing and deployment. The economic realities forced upon us the need to diversify and be excellent in areas we might not have previously imagined possible.

While times are somewhat better, expectations to we be diverse remain and the good times have done little to erase the ever-lurking spectre of development being shipped overseas.

The economic realities are unchanging - will Chad's company maintain the luxury of a design staff once our economy begins, inevitably, to shift in the other direction? Perhaps not. The push to do more with fewer people will continue to move relentlessly forward. Wise developers will embrace the emergence of exceptional design/development technologies from Microsoft and themselves demonstrate the ability to function both as excellent designers and developers, proving Chad incorrect.

Where one can do the job of two, only one will remain...

re: The New Iteration: A Whitepaper on the XAML Revolution

tims — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:22:01 GMT

I'm sure there's some truth to that. But I wonder how many developers could design a user interface as rich as Windows Vista or Yahoo Messenger? It takes more than versatility - it takes artistry. Some companies don't care about that, but in an increasing number of software projects (particularly in the consumer space), good design is what sells the application. It lends an air of quality and polish to the application, it makes it more likely someone will make an impulse buy in a store, it increases customer satisfaction. That's what I meant earlier when I talked about building the business case for good design.

Best wishes, Tim

Next Generation User Inteface, ovvero: "Ma siamo ancora alla griglia?"

Sat, 03 May 2008 16:59:56 GMT

Lo sviluppo di applicazioni della nuova generazione passa anche per nuovi paradigmi di interazione uomo-macchina,

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Hock Blogs .NET — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:48:10 GMT

The New Iteration when working with WPF

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Chad Brown — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:38:55 GMT

Very nice whitepaper from Karsten Januszewski and Jaime Rodriguez . This is the type of communication