farina wrote:Good! I'd like to see Microsoft start concentrating on the UI...if only they weren't 10 years late . I absolutly agree the line between design and development is bluring, and I'm more than happy to see the merger.
I love the UX team at Microsoft, they are doing an amazing job of highlighting to the developer community of the importance of designers to the SDLC.The issue is that there are a immensly short supply of designers with microsoft skills. They are all residing in the adobe/flash arena. The challenge over the next couple of years is to, in order of importance,1. Convince the adobe/flash developer community to take up microsoft skills and design for us2. Train the existing arsenal of microsoft experienced developers with good design skills to move into design.3. Convince a new generation of designers that the microsoft way is worth investing in, get them from Uni or from non-traditional IT related fields. It's no use having all these cool new tools to design in if there arnt designers to use them! ps. Im not an MS employee BUT i love the whole UX approach that Im going out of my way to do 1 and 2 above. If we can grow our designer market to half the size of adobe's, were talking a billion dollar industry arising from virtual nothing. Great talk and looking forward to more talks from the UX team!!!