UX Confidential

Dave Bost at The Chicago Silverlight Users Group

 
Dave Bost discusses Windows Phone development at The Chicago Silverlight Users Group.
 

MIX It Up! at The Chicago Silverlight Users Group (Updated)

There was a lot of buzz and a number of great announcements at last month's MIX10 event in Las Vegas, especially around Windows Phone 7 and one of its development platforms, Silverlight.

Register now and join The Chicago Silverlight Users Group this Wednesday, April 7th at 6pm where we'll review and discuss announcements and demo content from MIX10, including Windows Phone 7!

The Chicago Silverlight Users Group meets on the first Wednesday of each month and focuses on Microsoft Silverlight, WPF and XAML design and development.

If you have any questions or comments about The Chicago Silverlight Users Group, send an email to: chicagosilverlight@live.com

Date: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (CT) 

Location: The Illinois Technology Association, 200 S. Wacker Drive, 15th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606

UPDATE: You can view all the videos and presentations from MIX10 here: http://live.visitmix.com/videos

Microsoft MVP Award x2

I was thrilled to discover last night that I have received my second Microsoft MVP Award for Expression Blend. This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. 

I spend a lot of time speaking and evangelizing Expression Blend, Silverlight and WPF with the design and technical communities and it's amazing for Microsoft to recognize these efforts. The way that Microsoft has opened itself up to designers is incredible. That they have provided game-changing tools for desingers to collaborate more effectively with developers is nothing short of amazing.

I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a great community.

Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview Now Available

Along with the release of the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Betas, comes the June preview of Expression Blend 2.5.

I am eager to install and test these new bits as Control Skinning has made its way to this version! I will be posting a review and thoughts on this new release after I have spent a few days with it. A list of known issues can be found here.

BTW, I still only recommend these betas for Silverlight 2 development. If you're working with WPF apps, stick with the RTM version of Blend 2.

Exporting XAML from Photoshop & Illustrator

From the mailbag…

John B. of Chicago asks: I am a UI designer that is interested in exploring XAML, WPF and Silverlight. Is there a way I can leverage my current set of tools (Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks) when working with Expression Blend, or do I need to start using Expression Design?

As a vector and raster graphic design tool, Expression Design is a great companion to Blend and it offers some advanced options and features when exporting artwork to XAML. But thankfully you don’t have to forgo years of Illustrator experience to get your designs into Blend.

There are several free plug-ins available that let designers export their existing files, artwork and layouts to XAML from industry-standard design tools like Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks:

• Michael Swanson offers a free plug-in that enables export from Adobe Illustrator to WPF and Silverlight compatible XAML. You can download his AI to XAMLExport plug-in here.

• Psd2Xaml from flowlabs.net is a free open-source tool for converting Photoshop .PSD files to XAML. Psd2Xaml saves vectors and layout data as in XAML and creates a folder containing the bitmaps from the PSD file. As a bonus, it also supports limited .SWF conversion to XAML.

• For Fireworks users, the Infragistics Fireworks to XAML Exporter is an extension that allows you to easily convert artwork created in the Fireworks to XAML.

 Thanks for your question, John.

WPF Boot Camp '08 Sessions Online

Microsoft has posted the WPF Boot Camp '08 sessions online and they are available for download. This is a great place to get started learning WPF: http://www.visitmix.com/University/wpf/bc08/

2 Flavors of Expression Blend

I had the chance to chat briefly with Pete Blois from the Microsoft Expression team about this week's announcements regarding Blend. He pointed out that there are 2 new versions of Blend now available: Blend 2 Beta and Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview. He recommended only using the 2.5 Preview when working with Silverlight 2 projects and sticking with the Blend 2 Beta when working with WPF. I will be installing both versions and have a comparison review of in the coming days.

2 Great Reasons to get Windows Live Now!

The Windows Live platform has recently added some compelling services that provide free online file storage and media streaming that Silverlight designers and developers can take advantage of.

SkyDrive provides 5GB of free online storage, and is accessible from any Windows or Macintosh computer with Internet access. The service allows you to create personal, shared, and public folders with password protection. SkyDrive is tightly integrated with Spaces, a service that lets users share photos and post blog entries.

While SkyDrive provides online storage for files, Silverlight Steaming, allows you to host Silverlight applications and media for free! Currently in pre-release, Silverlight Streaming offers designers and developers up to 4BG to host rich media as part of their Silverlight applications.

SkyDrive and Silverlight Streaming, as with all Windows Live Services, require a free Windows Live ID. If you use Hotmail, Windows Messenger or MSN you already have a Live ID. Click here to learn more.

MIX08, Here I Come!

Don't miss MIX08, March 5 - 7, 2008 at The Venetian
Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now in its third year, MIX is an opportunity for cutting-edge technical, creative and business strategists to engage Microsoft in a conversation about the future of the web. Click here to register.

ReMIX Boston Screencast Sessions

In case you missed it, Microsoft has posted the screencast sessions from Boston Remix 07 on Channel 9. The links to the presentation that I gave with Rocky Lhotka are below:

Real World Experiences Buildings Applications Using WPF and Silverlight
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4