Microsoft held a web dev training seminar on the Expression Studio last week. The talk started with a run down on user experience and what great user experience means, namely reliability, usefulness, adaptability and desirability.

The points were well made but when it came to Microsoft fulfilling each of these areas the speaker came on a little too strong. Showing a video, via Silverlight, in full screen, HD and the volume up high doesn’t showcase how Silverlight delivers a cinematic experience. Sitting in a large tiered room with a large screen gives that effect. Saying that the rest of the presentations picked up and I have to say I have gained some faith in the company.

Michael Tirion, user experience evangelist from the Netherlands, spoke about his desires for a better designer – developer workflow. He went into Microsoft’s Expression studio in detail cover each package, how they tie in together and how they aid the design – developer relationship.

Most surprising to me was to hear the W3C mentioned. Microsoft’s Expression Web package is standards compliant. ‘So they say’ of course, but, I spoke with Michael after the presentation and I’m convinced they made a decent effort at the very least. On top of the source code for the .NET framework will be available to developers now. The explanation is that Microsoft’s IP doesn’t rely only on their code but in the combined package and development structure they are offering through the Expression Studio.

Something that really caught my attention was the Blend package, mainly because it supports ‘real’ 3D, e.g., importing .obj files from applications such as 3D Studio Max and Maya, seriously looking forward to getting my hands on that. Tafiti is worth having a look at, their take on the next gen search engine and Photosynth was really impressive, there’s no dev kit yet, but there are a few examples to play around with on their site, great fun!

I’m finishing up while I still have some soul left. I’ve never been a huge Microsoft fan and I’m far from devoted now, even after my rant. I’m an open source fan but I still use Microsoft products and services. I suppose similar to the Mac/PC debate, there’s room for both and ignorance to either means losing out on an easier more productive solution or missing a beat on what your competition is up to. Either way it’d be a shame to ignore what these guys are doing.