Expression Blend Looks Creepy

Just installed Expression Blend (beta 1) This has to be one of the ugliest IDEs I've seen. It reminds me of wandering through the lobby and halls of the W hotel in Seattle at night! Creepy!
I switched to the Light scheme right away which is marginally better than the dark, monochromatic look.
What's weird is that some MS people think it's "friendlier, easier, more elegant".

If you don't mind, could we just have a "normal" Windows interface option - like in the good ol'  days?
Published Monday, December 04, 2006 7:45 PM by Ken Cox [MVP]
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# WebLog of Ken Cox : Expression Blend Looks Creepy

Monday, December 04, 2006 10:16 PM by WebLog of Ken Cox : Expression Blend Looks Creepy

PingBack from http://weblogs.asp.net/kencox/archive/2006/12/04/expression-blend-looks-creepy.aspx

# re: Expression Blend Looks Creepy

Monday, December 04, 2006 10:29 PM by interscape

It looks WAY better than the whitewashed version from before. At least you can see everything now.

# re: Expression Blend Looks Creepy

Tuesday, December 05, 2006 3:46 AM by FransBouma

haha the W hotel, great metaphore! :D

FB, who really wonders who will ever buy this software because it's not included in the MSDN.

# re: Expression Blend Looks Creepy

Friday, May 25, 2007 11:04 PM by IEUSER

Do you realize that the target consumers are designers and it's indsutry practice to limit the use of color as your eye's will be more sensative to the actual work your doing instead of being distracted by some cheeze ball UI effect. (MSN Live Messanger is designed to distract you so you notice AD's and such, e.g. you can notice the effect of the adds they use often has a slight animation).

YAWN, read up a bit, maybe you'll learn something,

mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/.../Hopfinger2001

# re: Expression Blend Looks Creepy

Saturday, May 26, 2007 11:02 AM by Ken Cox [MVP]

IEUSER, I'll take your word for it that it's "industry practice" to use ugly interfaces. That hasn't been my experience with tools like Fireworks and Photoshop which retain some personality.

# re: Expression Blend Looks Creepy

Monday, August 06, 2007 12:52 PM by Xtek

Ken, I think the point is Blend was made in WPF/C#3/.NET 3.0 itself.  In fact on Channel9 it was stated Blend's itnerface was created in itself as it grew.  I can't say I'm entirely head-over-heals over the interface but it shows that custom interfaces can look pretty decent.  Besides they were really rushed to get Blend out the door.

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