The great interface revolution
A few days ago I was talking with my master chief about interface design, RIAs and WPF. In a business application you often see the standard win32 elements, radio buttons, tree lists, tabs etc. What was confusing was how something like WPF could fit into that world, functional and to the point. While in WPF you can create the very same interface, whats very different is that you are not limited to those interface elements alone. With a designer you can create an interface that suits your purposes, finding new ways of aligning interface elements, displaying data etc. WPF and Microsoft tooling allow developers to work very closley with the designer so the application no longer becomes the strict boundry of the developer, but like in the web world becomes a joint effort between designer and developer. If you are attending Mix its worth looking out for break sessions or discussions related to this. I hope Microsoft provide us with sessions that have a pure focus on this, I for one will look at interest at how Microsoft tooling will do more and more for this merger (for example the workflow and sourcecontrol of VSTS).