Microsoft today at the Internet Week Conference in New York City announced the official release of Microsoft Expression Studio 4, the latest version of the company's Web design and rich user interface (UI) development tool. Targeted at digital designers and at Visual Studio developers designing rich application UIs, Expression Studio 4 adds more robust visual tools that eliminate the need to work with Extensible Markup Language (XAML) code and provide enhanced SketchFlow functionality for enabling interactive, prototype apps. The latest release comes just nine months after Microsoft launched Expression Studio 3. Microsoft is allowing current owners of version 3 to upgrade to Expression Studio 4 at no charge.
Dave Mendlen, senior director of Developer Marketing at Microsoft, said the company is anxious to get the message out with this version of Expression Studio. "We think of it as a suite of professional design tools to enable designers and developers to create and enable amazing user experiences," said Mendlen. "I think we haven’t done the right level of communication to the critically important audience of developers." The Expression Studio 4 suite consists of four modules. Expression Blend is a visual UI builder for XAML-based WPF and Silverlight apps, and includes the SketchFlow app prototyping module. Expression Web is a site designer and HTML editor, while Expression Design is a graphics design application. Expression Encoder is a digital video encoding application. Of these, Expression Blend 4 is of greatest interest to Visual Studio developers, enabling them to manipulate working XAML code using rich, visual interfaces.Developer ExperienceMendlen said Expression Studio appeals to two classes of developer experience: those who are working with a professional design department and must provide prototype software to kick start the design process, and those without design support and are left to create application UIs themselves. In the former instance, developers in Visual Studio and designers in Expression Blend can work on the same XAML code, passing it back and forth between them without the need for translation or conversion. Mendlen said the process is far superior to the status quo, where designers mock up interfaces as static images, which they "throw over the wall" for the developers to work against. Read more: Microsoft Online
Dave Mendlen, senior director of Developer Marketing at Microsoft, said the company is anxious to get the message out with this version of Expression Studio. "We think of it as a suite of professional design tools to enable designers and developers to create and enable amazing user experiences," said Mendlen. "I think we haven’t done the right level of communication to the critically important audience of developers." The Expression Studio 4 suite consists of four modules. Expression Blend is a visual UI builder for XAML-based WPF and Silverlight apps, and includes the SketchFlow app prototyping module. Expression Web is a site designer and HTML editor, while Expression Design is a graphics design application. Expression Encoder is a digital video encoding application. Of these, Expression Blend 4 is of greatest interest to Visual Studio developers, enabling them to manipulate working XAML code using rich, visual interfaces.Developer ExperienceMendlen said Expression Studio appeals to two classes of developer experience: those who are working with a professional design department and must provide prototype software to kick start the design process, and those without design support and are left to create application UIs themselves. In the former instance, developers in Visual Studio and designers in Expression Blend can work on the same XAML code, passing it back and forth between them without the need for translation or conversion. Mendlen said the process is far superior to the status quo, where designers mock up interfaces as static images, which they "throw over the wall" for the developers to work against. Read more: Microsoft Online
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