Microsoft started talking about its Expressions product line quite some time ago but it is a solution for designers, which is something Microsoft has always lacked. I think it’s about time Microsoft started embracing designers and they have been following through. They are trying to implement standards in IE7. They have release a very cool CSS Control Adapters package (more later). Microsoft has release a nice (and long) article on designing ASP.Net sites with web standards.
It’s just a shame that a majority of Microsoft developers either don’t care or do not care to learn this side of web development. I have always had this problem in being a Microsoft developer and a web standards / semantic markup advocate. It seems to me that Microsoft hasn’t embraced the adoption of these standards in its products thus not giving any reason for developers to adopt them.
Well, they are trying. And hopefully there’s something I can do to get the message out to ASP.Net developers — You’re sites can be designed beautifully. You can build sites on standards, using semantic markup. You can create scalable managed code simply.
Sorry, enough ranting and time for what I actually wanted to portray — Microsoft’s new line of designer design products. There are three in the suite versioned for your role as a designer: 1) Expression Graphic Designer, 2) Expression Interactive Designer, and 3) Expression Web Designer. Of course I am more interested in the Web Designer. You can view a bunch of demos here.
The product’s features claim the following:
“Create CSS-based, XHTML 1.0 Transitional–conformant Web sites by default, and work better across browsers, simplifying deployment and maintenance. Configure flexible schema settings to support all combinations of HTML/XHTML/Strict/Transitional/Frameset and CSS 1.0/2.0/2.1 in addition to browser-specific schemas. Validate your site with Compatibility reporting and use the Accessibility report to verify your site against Section 508 and W3C Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).”
And, after watching the demos for the entire product line I see a lot of promise. Although it will be tough to compete with Adobe, integration of the Expression product line into existing Microsoft Development environments will be a quality niche for this line of products. I will definitely be checking them out.
The only thing I am wondering is what’s the difference between Visual Web Developer Express and Expressions Web Designer?
Proof Microsoft is reaching out to web designers:
Microsoft, IE, and the Web Standards Project
Building ASP.Net 2.0 Sites using Web Standards
CSS Friendly ASP.Net 2.0 Controls
More to come…
tags: microsoft, design, css, web development
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