Essays on Design

Designing with Expression Blend™

Design before you Blend
    Not too long ago I was doing some design work for a large software company in the Pacific Northwest.  I was asked to deliver my designs in XAML, using Blend as a tool for creating the XAML and C# as the code-behind.  “Great!”, I thought, “I’ll learn some new skills and I’ll be able to deliver the executed designs directly to the development team.” 

    Project management also saw the opportunity for saving time and streamlining process.  If the designer (me) could execute his ideas in Blend, the development team could just pick up the presentation layer from my hand-off and add the tricky bits to make it fully functional. 

    I have become comfortable with Fireworks for wireframes, Illustrator for final design illustrations and icons, InDesign for redline spec documents and the latest version of Visual Studio for prototype development.  I am able to move with ease in these applications and I’m able to produce deliverables that have meaning and value for my clients.   

    I imagined that Blend would condense my own process.  I would move from wireframes directly to final design execution.  I mentally hosted a private little laugh at six sigma protagonists; my new scorn & ridicule for their tyranny was making me giddy.

A few weeks later: Delivering the design
    With the wireframes and prototyping done, at last it was time to start putting the final design together.  Instead of using Illustrator to create the final screen shots and then InDesign to redline those shots with descriptive text, I fired up Blend – for the first time.

    I gradually learned how to use Blend, but it took a great deal of precious time.  Now I was really pressed.  The project manager was biting his nails and was stopping by my office with increasing frequency, asking “Can I see where you’re at?”  My days grew longer, my weekends vaporized and my unbilled hours grew out-of-control as I attempted to work my way out of the hole and salvage a valuable future reference.  I was living the consulting nightmare.  You've heard the urban legends about dedicated developers wearing disposable gloves in order to avoid keyboarding nerve damage; well here's the best place to buy latex gloves, or nitrile gloves. My advice is to change gloves often.

    Finally, I delivered the executed design to the development team.  I was so proud.  No redline document.  Who would ever need that?  I was delivering the fully executed design itself.  The entire presentation layer had just been handed off!  I went back to my room-away-from-home that Friday night and slept long and easy. 

    Monday morning I accepted all the accolades for the clear, beautiful designs and everyone marveled at the new paradigm – so much time had been saved.  “Yes.” I flatly droned in agreement, “Wonderful.”  My voice may have trailed a bit, but nobody noticed.  I was grateful to be done. 

    I knew that another version of this product was already in the pipeline, so I wondered how I should approach this revision.  Perhaps I should just start working in Blend all the time, doing wireframes, prototypes and moving quickly to executed design all in the same application.

Surprise, Surprise
    Later that same Monday, I was called back into a meeting in the project manager’s office.
    He explained, "We've got some changes that we need to make to the way it works.”

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    “Why?” I asked.
    “We don’t have enough developers to do everything that you put in the design.”
    I tried to bring recent history to bear: “But we agreed on everything that’s there.  Remember?  The requirements, the wireframes, the prototypes?”
    He sighed, “Yeah, but we never had a spec to sign off on before you went ahead and did  everything.”

    I was flabbergasted.  He was telling me that some final decision-making, the tough decisions, had been deferred pending a final design specification.  And now, my just-delivered XAML was being used as a final design review.

    So I had not delivered the executed design after all.  I had taken a really long time to deliver a non-redlined final spec.  And final review was only just now beginning.

There were other problems with this:

    None of this was Blend’s fault.  It was my fault.  I had been so anxious to ditch a tedious and very requiring part of the design process that I had quickly jumped onto the “Ditch the spec!” bandwagon.

Don’t make the mistake that I made
    Here is the lesson that I learned:  Designs need to be communicated before they can be executed.  There needs to be a document that focuses the attention of the team and demands resolution from all stakeholders.  Having a clear, detailed target specification is the ultimate design deliverable.

    I love Microsoft Expression Blend™ and I am using it all the time.  It is a powerful tool for creating immersive, cinematic user experiences.  I love the Win/Web flexibility that XAML promises.  Our design studio has decided to publish a set of XAML controls and I am heavily involved in that project.  I also hope to finish writing a book on Blend techniques.  I am a Blend apologist.  With Blend, you can deliver executed designs and control every pixel of the presentation layer.  But it is not a tool for communicating design specifications.

    Don’t make the mistake that I made.  Deliver a design spec before you start working in Blend.

 - Dave Walker