Well it’s the 21 century, after a great deal of effort, hardship and toil, they have finally done it.
What is the “it” I’m talking about?
Design!
Yes, after many years of the design of applications being a second class citizen Microsoft has been kind enough to upgrade us to partners in the development of software (all be it silent partners who only have a 5 per cent share of the company and only pop in for tea and biscuits occasionally). But lets face it, it’s more than any other company has ever done.
The look of an application has always played second fiddle in the grand scheme of things in the past. To be completely honest I could see why. That doesn’t mean that I agreed with it, but it was just the way things were. Up until now applications, with the limited power of hardware, had enough trouble just doing what was required, let alone anything else.
With WPF the designer has been set free to run amok in the work place. UI/UX (user interface/ user experience) has finally come to the fore.
No longer do developers try and imitate closely what the designer has provided them. Designers now delve into the presentational guts of the application (XAML) and manipulate it directly (with Microsoft Expression Blend) to implement their design as they envision it.
Advantages of Designer/Developer interaction
The advantages are obvious, not only in the look of the application. There are significant other benefits to this approach:
1) Developers can concentrate on what they are good at without the tiresome work of considering colours and layout.
2) Designers can concentrate on what they are good at. Also they can be confident that they will see/interact the way they want the application to.
3) The whole process of creating an application becomes far easier and faster.
4) This makes the application less complex therefore more reliable.
5) All this also makes it cheaper.
All hail unity!
Yes, finally we are all one happy developy/designery family. We can forge headlong into the future with a new sense of vigour and purpose.
Now we have the tools to do the things which always looked so simple yet were so riddled with problems. The future looks bright and as the tools get better all developers/designers will have to start wearing sunglasses to work.