Hi, my name is Jason Campbell and I am a User Experience Evangelist for Microsoft for the Southwest based out of Los Angeles. This is a new role for me and a bit of a departure, I’ve spent the last fifteen years working in creative as either a Designer, Art Director, or Creative Director, on some great projects for studios like Universal, WB, Paramount and Sony, and some large commerce sites at AOL like shopping, mobile, careers and personals.
I am excited about the new challenges of this role, one of which is the reason for this site. You see I am by experience a Flash guy, I’ve been using the tool for years, since just before the turn of the century actually, I have designed, animated, and developed flash sites throughout my career using AS 1,2, and now 3, now I don’t claim to be a developer but when I became heavily involved in Flash and really wanted my projects to come to life it was inevitable that I should become somewhat familiar with that side of the equation and it was a bit of a surprise to me that I would take to it as I have. It was a tough learning curve for me but a fun one and one I am still riding, but now I have the opportunity to take on a similar challenge in this role with Microsoft.
As I grow into this position I am going to be learning how to develop sites in Silverlight and I am going to share that experience with you along the way. I hope that those of you interested in doing the same will join me here and share your experiences as well. I honestly don’t know what to expect here. I have only a cursory knowledge of Silverlight so it’s a real ground up approach for me. I know that there are some great shops out there developing some really amazing experiences with the tool so I have a lot of confidence in it’s capabilities but there is some concern over the learning curve for myself since I am more of a designer than a developer and a question of just how much parity there is between it and Flash as far as development.
Silverlight is still in a very early stage of it’s life cycle but it has done well in these last couple of years in gaining momentum. The NBC 2008 Olympic online coverage leveraged the technology http://www.nbcolympics.com, and the Home Shopping Network is doing some great e-commerce work with it on their site tying the broadcast with the online purchase http://www.hsn.tv. There are also many examples of the work being done with Silverlight at Microsoft’s Silverlight site http://www.silverlight.net.
This is the beginning of a journey for me, a little unnerving at the start because, as with all new technology or rather technology we are new to, it all seems so daunting. I hope that together we can get this rolling without too much of a struggle and if along the way we could open a line of dialog on what Microsoft could be doing better with the technology and the tools that would be outstanding. That actually was one of the things that attracted me to this opportunity, along with the chance to interact with you in the design community more, to know that I can and should collect your voices, experience, praise and disdain for this and other Microsoft technology and work to bring that information to the people in charge of the development of it as evidence, good or bad, with the sole intent of delivering a greater product down the line. I mean who wouldn’t want to have that kind of affect at one of the largest technology companies in the world, and to not only have them accept it but to be asked for it as a extremely important part of the role’s responsibility. I just think that is awesome.
So lets get going, there is a lot to do and I for one can’t wait.
Get the ball rolling!