Microsoft Expression Blend 4 is Microsoft’s newest interactive design tool. It’s intended for
designers and developers who need to create user interfaces for rich Internet, desktop, and
mobile applications—and it offers tools that support the design of such applications, from
conception to completion.
Expression Blend 4 is part of Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Ultimate, a suite of design tools
that includes the impressive SketchFlow feature, which helps designers rapidly experiment
with dynamic user experiences and create compelling functional prototypes.
Expression Blend provides powerful tools for integrating sample data into your application.
If you’re just beginning an application design and have no existing sample data to fill it with,
Expression Blend provides sample data sources that you can use to populate the application
with temporary (but realistic) data. If you do have sample data, Expression Blend lets you use
that. In both cases, you’ll be able to view the sample data while you design the user interface—
even before the application gets connected to the final “live” data source.
With Expression Blend, you can even integrate graphics created in other design tools, such as
Microsoft Expression Design, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop. The easiest source for
integrating external graphic assets is Expression Design. The Expression Design + Expression
Blend combination provides simple integration paths, because both applications are in the
Expression Studio family. But you aren’t limited to that combination. There are powerful importing
tools that integrate assets from Adobe products as well. With Expression Blend, the
choice of graphic design tools is up to you.
Expression Blend also makes it easy to enable interactivity without writing code. Behaviors,
which are powerful interactivity building blocks, were developed expressly so that designers
could add interactivity to applications without writing code. To use behaviors, you simply drag
them onto objects in Expression Blend, set their properties, and enjoy the resulting interactivity.
The most common task for user interface designers—skinning controls—involves understanding
the structure of common controls and creating reusable styles for applications.
Powerful Expression Blend style/template editing capabilities help designers to carefully
modify the look and feel of default Microsoft Silverlight or Windows Presentation Foundation
(WPF) controls while retaining their functionality.
Expression Blend 4 also makes design workflow easier than ever before. Designers and
developers can work seamlessly, sharing projects, code, and designs for better productivity
and higher quality results.