I was reading Pro WPF in C# 2008 yesterday (in anonymous bookstore) and in chapter 2 they mention that XAML allows for the graphic design and the programmer to be completely independent. It got me wondering if most companies are moving toward having dedicated design specialists for implementing there UI’s? I know at our company we have had less than encouraging comments about our displays/UI’s and we have even considered bringing in consultants. All of our UI development is done by the developer.
Should we have/hire a graphic design specialist, or hire a consultant to look at our work, or will WPF be the savior for our lack luster UI’s?
We’ve started using WPF, but we have no UI designers – and it shows. Some of our user interfaces here (99% in Windows Forms, rough guesstimate) could be filed under “crime against humanity.” I’ve done something relatively pleasing to the eyes with my first WPF application, but it still could use some TLC. I must say that even though WPF drove me nuts at first, now I hope I won’t have to go back to Windows Forms for future projects.
WPF offers the potential, but it’s very likely that the majority of companies who don’t use UI designers now won’t start just because they’re using WPF. Hell, most don’t have dedicated test teams, so don’t even dare mentioning the idea of dedicated UI designers. The mentality here is: “As long as it works, it doesn’t matter how it looks.” It drives me mad every time.
Stephan mentioned laziness. That’s not un-true (we have people who display actual cryptic database field names on screen rather than user-friendly names, for instance), but as Mario pointed out, UI skills are a different beast from programming skills. We have some excellent programmers who should never be allowed to go near the interface.