Microsoft looks to mix it up with Adobe

27.03.2006
Multimedia developer Jered Cuenco calls it the "gray-box application" phenomenon: A Web developer, befuddled by a graphic designer's computer-drawn mock-ups, delivers a prototype full of generic gray buttons, plain white backgrounds, oversized headlines and other crimes against visually interesting user interfaces.

"It just drives designers up a wall," said Cuenco, who works at Avenue A/Razorfish, an interactive design firm in Portland, Ore. Such results reflect the typically clumsy workflow between designers and developers, Cuenco said. He put part of the blame on the fact that the software tools used by the respective camps don't talk well with each other.

Microsoft Corp. hopes to solve that problem with its upcoming Expression suite of Web design software. And at its Mix 06 conference in Las Vegas last week, the vendor worked to convince attendees -- most of them loyal to Adobe Systems Inc. products such as Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver -- to add Expression to their toolboxes.

The Expression software, which could be ready for release by year's end, will let designers work in drag-and-drop environments while producing underlying code in the Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML). Then they will be able to exchange the XAML code with developers creating business applications, portals and services for Windows Vista, said Microsoft officials.

Cuenco said in advance of Mix 06 that although Adobe's software may be great for developing Web-based applications for consumers, it can't compete with Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) framework for developing graphics-enhanced applications for business users.

"The things you can do in WPF, Flash can't do," Cuenco said. For example, with Expression, developers will be able to layer business applications with user interfaces that can be easily swapped out or customized by users, he said.