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WPF Designer and Developer Collaboration - Essential WPF

WPF Designer and Developer Collaboration

From time to time I read posts and see questions regard the collaboration between WPF developer and designer. So I decided to say few words about my experience and point of view. There are two popular models for developer/designer collaboration with WPF
  1. The designer mockup the UI, handing it to the developer for adding logic. With this model it is advised that the designer will be part of the team, and there should be a tight integration between the developer and the designer. I don’t like this model since the designer should know nothing about the infrastructure such as CAB/Prism, or about performance. Also the XAML generated is too wild to be restrained.
  2. The developer creates fully featured UI with the correct layout, binds to data, commands, etc, and then passes it to the designer for restyling. The designer creates styles, control templates, data templates, brushes, graphics, etc. In this model the designer and the developer work independently, and there is a very small integration between them or none at all, since everything fits and the designer do not change and do not need to change the XAML created by the developer, and knows nothing about the presentation model, binding or anything non-visual. The designer only adds resources to a resource dictionary. This model is similar to the old fashion UI designing style, but now with the power of XAML, you get the exact visuals from the designer. Also as a UI developer you keep your job.
 Working with WPF for about more than 2 years, I think that the second model wins for real-life, complex solutions, such as enterprise and client side application UI, and the first model wins for mockups, pilots, demo’s, very small, static, and naïve applications such as catalogs, sales promotion, presentations, with few options. Also no one that hasn’t hired a UI designer so far will expand its UI team with such one in the near future (at least not in Israel).

 

 

If you choose the first model remember that things that the designer can’t do with Blend, she may be able to do with XAML. Things that the designer can’t do with XAML the developer should write custom tools for XAML (Markup Extensions, Value Converters, Type Converters, Custom Panels, Custom Controls, etc), so the designer can do with XAML or Blend. 

 

Published Wednesday, August 06, 2008 3:29 PM by Tomer Shamam
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