Creative Jar

Creating a Winning Experience for the Next-Generation Web

Following the release of its latest suite of interactive Web design tools, Microsoft challenged the United Kingdom’s designers and developers to enter a competition to create a dynamic, next-generation Web site.

Microsoft Silverlight is amazing. It totally owns all your design. You can import designs straight into Silverlight with no translation and they’ll look just like you want them to look. It bridges the gap between design and development. You don’t have to alter your design vision or slice images. Tim Hustler Lead Web Developer Creative Jar

Creative freedom was paramount. The only condition was that all entrants used the Microsoft® Web stack, so every one of the record 522 participants acquired a free, time-limited copy. The prize for the lucky winner was a Web designer/developer’s dream: Common Gateway Interface (CGI) training at a leading European CGI house and free tickets to the Microsoft ReMix UK 08 “Next Web” event.

For Microsoft, this innovative competition was an ideal opportunity to show how the next generation of Microsoft Web tools bridges the gap between design and development to an audience of leading U.K. software professionals.

Winner Tim Hustler, Lead Web Developer with digital design agency Creative Jar, wowed the judges with his stunning concepts for an entire new Web site for ReMix UK 08. The tools he used included Microsoft Silverlight™ Web browser plug-in for supporting rich Internet applications, the Microsoft Expression® Studio design suite, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2008, Microsoft ASP.NET, and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

“Silverlight is amazing. It totally owns all your design,” says Hustler. “You can import designs straight into Silverlight with no translation and they’ll look just like you want them to look. It bridges the gap between design and development. You don’t have to alter your design vision or slice images.” Hustler quickly picked up Silverlight, Visual Studio .NET, and Expression. “If you know the .NET Framework, you know Silverlight and these great interoperable tools,” says Hustler. “For amendments, you don’t have to recode the whole page, but just drag out the one part you want to change.”

Creative Jar Managing Director Joseph Richardson highlights the added business value of the latest Microsoft Web tools, with Silverlight greatly reducing time and costs. “Adopting Silverlight is a good business move for us, not only for the kudos of using advanced software but because our people can do new and interesting things,” he says. “Silverlight is going to be at the forefront of the future convergence of Web applications.”

Benefits

• Shortens time-to-market for Web design.
• Bridges gap between developers and designers.
• Makes it easy to amend designs.
• Encourages creative freedom.
• Avoids need to alter design vision.

For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/casestudies

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published July 2008