infragistics=B*D *SS On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 12:33 PM, J. Ambrose Little <[email protected]>wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Petroff, Greg <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > If you are working with Air or Silverlight ... where do you think it's > > going? What is the current state of the tools? There yet? Not? How do we > > see these changing what we do? > > > > Well, I'm pretty familiar with Silverlight. That's what we built > Quince<http://sn.im/quince-intro>, > our UX design patterns explorer, on, and I'm the lead author on Wrox > Silverlight 3, a programmer's reference (not geared at designers, but we do > cover aspects of design--our director of visual design, Grant Hinkson, is a > co-author and writes on that)--due to be released early this summer, > barring > unforeseen surprises. :) > > Personally, I think the foreseeable future of software applications for > desktop/laptop and, eventually, mobile and other devices is > Silverlight/AIR. > It'll take a while for us to get there, but they're just waay more solid > platforms to build on than HTML+CSS+JS, which were not designed for rich > interactive stuff (although I am impressed what we've [the software > industry] been able to do with those technologies). > > As far as tooling for Silverlight goes, the foundations are certainly > there--VS for devs and Blend for technically-adept designers. I think VS > is > pretty solid for the devs already, though I think most devs don't want to > have to go to another tool for an effective design experience (doubtless > that problem will be solved in the not-too-distant future). > > Even though the tools for SL (and AIR) are still young--babies--I still > maintain that we could not have produced Quince or (more importantly) > maintain and enhance it as effectively had we chosen Ajax as our platform. > I can tell you from personal experience and from my knowledge of many devs > that the majority of devs will (or already do) vastly prefer a more > reliable > platform on the client (like Silverlight). It's just ridiculous how much > head-banging-on-desk they have to do for HTML et al, and the tools are > flaky > at best (even though they and browsers are light years better these days). > > >From a designer perspective, you will be empowered to explore more > interaction possibilities than are available with Ajax, which sounds like > something you want to do, not just in terms of technology/platform > capabilities but just in the lower cost for making those kinds of > potentially richer interactions available in the end product. These > (SL/AIR) > ameliorate the feasibility design constraint. > > In terms of recommendations, there are many factors to consider. What is > your team's background--what technologies and tools are they most > productive > with today? That's one, potentially big factor in choosing. Sadly, there > are also prejudices/bigotry that you may bump up against as well, both on > teams and with some users. Then of course there's the target audience, > which is the most critical factor--will they have or be willing to install > the necessary plug-ins? > > As for being outside the browser, Microsoft announced at MIX09 that > Silverlight > 3 does support out of browser experiences. I can confirm this from > experience--you can get the beta today if you want. Blend 3 also has some > interesting improvements for designers, but I leave it to individuals to > judge if it is non-technical enough for their tastes/capabilities. > > I can't speak so much for AIR, but I can say that IMO the future is very > bright for Silverlight, and I recommend it as a de facto platform to do new > work on and then move away from it as needed given the other considerations > for particular teams, target audiences, and problem domains. > > Maybe the big bummer is the mobile story right now. I think it's the next > big battleground for software (if it isn't already!). It will be fun to > see > how it all works out, but also a bit painful for those of us trying to > build > great stuff in the meantime.. > > Hope this helps. > > --Ambrose > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
