Mike Hodnick

In my exploration of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), I've spent time looking for ways that WPF's 2D and 3D graphics capabilities can be used to create effective and visually-captivating user interfaces.  I've downloaded quite a few sample WPF applications and have experimented with Microsoft's Expression Interactive Designer in the past few months and have seen many examples that show off WPF's 2D and 3D features.  Most of the time, the demos, samples, and tutorials I come across are overrun with the "richness" that WPF allows. Curved edges, gradient backgrounds and surfaces, over-the-top color schemes, complex styling of simple boxed containers... the list goes on.

WPF is a major new change in Windows user interfaces. With the abundance of "over-rich" examples that are surfacing as WPF emerges into mainstream Windows development, will we see hundreds of horrid user interfaces developed by newcomers to the technology once the final bits are released? Will one developer use their own sleek blue color scheme with shiny textures and eye-grabbing animations while another company forces their brand into their app with their company color scheme and images?

Luckily, Microsoft has written a set of Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines. These guidelines cover everything from the differences between Windows XP's and Windows Vista's look-and-feel to what wording you should use in wizard controls. They discuss common-sense topics like building user interfaces that are consistent with Vista's UI conventions, but there are other good details in there too about navigation, grammar, and form layouts. Some conventions that we're familiar with in Windows9x/ME/2000/XP have changed a bit, and if you've played with the new Windows Vista operating system you've already seen those changes (e.g. new dialog boxes). All of these changes are covered in the guidelines.

While you're experimenting with WPF, go crazy with its visual capabilities so that you can gain some experience and become familiar with what is possible. Just make sure to reign yourself back in once you start creating user interfaces that will be unleashed in the real world.