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Some general notice to all concerned, that this site will be closed down for remodelling very shortly.

Because this site is non-profit, it will take some time for the redesign to take place which is unfortunate but unless anyone wants to donate some web design services, there is little that will change this fact.

On return, your username and password should continue to be valid, allowing you to access various content.

What’s in the future plans? This is a bit of a secret. Let’s just say, this site will become much more focussed on designers.

To those that have chipped in and helped along the way, I thank you very much and your efforts have not gone un-noticed.

Brennon Williams

Last week I was talking to several agencies and large developer consultancies here in the UK and in the US, looking at potential contracts and new clients for WPF projects.

What struck me was how almost all of these companies had really very little idea about what they were doing with WPF. In general, these large development houses have got the same developers that made their old WinForms UI's, to knock up the same UI's in XAML, and somehow they think that they are WPF development leaders because of it?

Can you believe that some of these companies had not heard of Blend?

Now you can start to picture it, cant you?

*** NEWS FLASH DEVELOPER COMMUNITY ***

Building the same old rubbish UI's, but this time using XAML, still results in a rubbish UI. Maybe it has a little bit more colour than before, but still rubbish none the less.

It would appear that a lot of these consultancies and practices don't employ designers for UI work, and think that user experience is a "phase"; a marketing term.

The problem is that their clients are just as clueless as to what is possible, so until such time as they (the client) start to see better UI alternatives, they probably come under the "ignorance Is bliss" category.

What will change this?

When design agencies start to pick up and run with the technology, and then start eating into the development consultancies market.

I think it disappointed me more then anything to see how the technology (WPF) is being used (or abused) instead of embraced and its potential explored and exploited.

On the other hand, it means that there is a lot of opportunities for other (maybe smaller) companies to gain a competitive advantage out there, by being smart about the solutions they create in comparison to the same old drizzle being built by the existing players in the market place.

Now before I get flamed for these comments, I am quite sure that there are plenty of companies out there building great stuff for their clients, and if this is you, then let us know and we will help promote your good work!

Something tells me that there is going to be a few rude shocks to come for some.

Howdy!

So I am now looking at the future of this site and I would like to get some feedback and some input from people looking to get involved in a community to support the Blend product and more importantly, the people using it.

This site was originally published in around 25 minutes, (thanks to community server) and was done to help people who were struggling with the new version of Blend as it changed dramatically from the CTP versions of Interactive Designer. This was never the intention of the site, but at the time I was more worried about helping people so they would keep using the product then I was about a community content type site.

Now I am at the stage where I want to begin to put this site in order, how it was originally intended and for this I need some help… well I need a lot of help really.

If you are a web designer/developer and you would like to create a new version of the site which would allow you to advertise your business and or services as the creator then I am interested in hearing from you. This site has a high volume hit rate which could be a good platform for any one wanting to promote their skills.

Some ideas about the site could be:

People that would like to write articles about the following categories:

• Interactive Design
• Graphic Design
• 3D Design
• Industrial Design
• .Net Development
• Architecture
• Hardware reviews
• Design/Development Industry news

Not everything has to be Blend specific but subject matter should lend itself to providing inspiration for things that can be done with Blend.

People that have created applications using Blend that they want to share with others could also be provided?

These are just a few ideas… let me know what you think, what you would like to see and of course if you want to be involved.

Cheers

Brennon.