Microsoft Unveils Expression Studio Design Tools

Published: December 6, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft this week rolled out a series of new and updated tools for creating new Web and Windows interfaces and displaying multimedia content. While the bulk of the products in the Expression Studio are still a ways from being released, Monday's announcement indicates Microsoft is serious about simplifying the development of "Web 2.0" user interfaces, and also competing with market leader Adobe in this area.

Monday marked the biggest update to Expression Studio since Microsoft revealed its intentions to target professional Web site designers about a year ago. The new suite will include Expression Web (the successor to FrontPage); Expression Media, a new tool; Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E), a Macromedia "Flash-killer"; Expression Blend (formerly Interactive Designer); and Expression Design (formerly Graphic Designer).

According to Microsoft, design professionals will use Expression Web to create standards-based Web sites, while Expression Media, which is based on the iView MediaPro product acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, will provides digital asset management and team workflow across the suite.

Microsoft also unveiled the first beta of Expression Blend, which will help users design interactive "experiences" for Windows, and a new community technology preview (CTP) of Expression Design, for designing interactive experiences for Windows and Web environments. Microsoft says it has reworked the interfaces for these products based on feedback from half a million downloads of the initial CTP versions of these products.

Also posted this week was the first CTP of WPF/E, a cross-platform browser plug-in for delivering rich media, animation and video content based on the Windows Media. Microsoft is betting on the pervasiveness of its Windows Media player to elevate WPF/E as a real contender to Macromedia Flash, currently the dominant suite of animation design tools for Web developers. Users will create content for WPF/E using either Expression Media or Expression Design.

Expression Web is the only tool available now in its final form. The rest of the Expression Studio is slated for general availability in the second quarter of 2007.

S. Soma Somasegar, Microsoft's tools guru and the corporate vice president of its developer division, sees developers and creators using the new Expression family hand-in-hand with the company's Visual Studio development tools. "Our goal is to enable designers to collaborate like never before with development teams so together they can raise the bar for user experiences and deliver compelling, rich, immersive, highly usable applications and content across the Web, the Windows desktop, mobile devices and the digital home," the SSS-man sayeth.

Eric Zocher, the general manager of the Expressions products, explained how the new tools will improve on old design techniques. "In the past, designers often printed out static pictures of their designs and walked over to the developer with a stack of pages, or sent the developer a JPEG or other image file that the developer tried to reproduce in code," he says in a PressPass Q&A posted to Microsoft's Web site. "The way the design turns out in the final software offering is very, very different--and often inferior--to what the designer had in mind. Frequently important details are lost and consistent elements of the design get built differently."

Microsoft also launched a new online community for Expression Studio users at www.microsoft.com/design that includes forums, video demos, and team blogs dedicated to the new products and their users.

While the products themselves aren't available in final form, Microsoft did unveil the final product pricing. Expression Web, which is available now, will carry an estimated retail price (ERP) of $299, or $99 if upgrading from FrontPage. Expression Blend will carry a price tag of $499 when it ships in the second quarter of 2007, while Expression Media will cost $299 when it's ready. When the full Expression Studio is ready, it will cost $599. Users that purchase Expression Web now will be able to upgrade to the full Expression Studio when it's available for a $349 charge.