Expression Studio Included With MSDN Subscriptions

Posted by Jonathan Allen on Apr 03, 2007 02:00 PM

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Due to community feedback, Microsoft has decided to make the web designer tools Expression Web and Expression Blend will be available to all MSDN Premium subscribers. Though Expression Blend won't be available until the release of Expression Studio, Expression Web is available for downloading now.

Microsoft originally decided not to offer the products because they were being targeted at designers and graphic artists, not developers. Microsoft changed their mind when it became clear that developers wanted at least basic knowledge of the tools that the designers they were working with were using. According to Somasegar,

In hearing this feedback, my team started looking into the matter in more detail and we talked to customers about how they are planning to use these products.  One common theme emerged, and that is developers could better collaborate with designers if they had some experience with the new tools the designers are using.  Even if you might not be using the Expression tools primarily, having a wider understanding of how they work and the information they produce will ensure greater communication and quality between design and development.

However, not all of the Expression Studio line will be available.

You may be asking, what about Expression Design and Expression Media?  Expression Blend and Expression Web are both designed to help creative professionals and developers work together to create rich user experiences for the Web, Windows Vista applications and beyond.  As Expression Design and Expression Media are not directly intended for application development, we feel they fall outside the current scope of MSDN Subscriptions.  We will be watching usage and collecting feedback of these expression products to help make further decisions in the future.

 

 

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