http://aspadvice.com/forums/327/ShowForum.aspxCome explore what types of user interfacess can be built on Avalon that couldn't be built before now. Beyond eye candy! Let's discuss what new options are available for UIs and what that means for the future.enCommunityServer 2.1 (Build: 60809.935)http://aspadvice.com/forums/thread/12875.aspxSun, 25 Sep 2005 22:38:57 GMTe709ad4c-0c15-48eb-915e-c462c6e85445:12875MichaelLatta0http://aspadvice.com/forums/thread/12875.aspxhttp://aspadvice.com/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=327&PostID=12875We had a good discussion about what types of interfaces will be enabled by WPF that have not been seen to date.  While we all appreciated eye candy, there was concensus that WPF enables APIs that would not have existed before because of what it makes possible at reasonable cost.  One example is my application which animates undo/redo.  I did this because I could, but it turned out to enhance usability because the user can see where a shape is moved when undo/redo is performed.  The user also gets feedback that the operation was performed, while a simple repaint is easier to mss as a user.  Another example was cited from Jef Raskin's writing on the user of zoom to support navigation on a 2D plane of information.  WPF is the first framework that has the peformance to support this type of zooming UI on a general basis.  The unified content model of WPF is going to inspire more applications like next generation page layout that allows more direct manipulation of content.  The types of UIs shown at the show are just the begining.  The medical application shown is a good example of using WPF "eye candy" to provide peripheral information to the user while allowing them to focus on the current task.  The user of 3D as in the NorthFace application were seen as largely of value to applications that take value from an advertising focus, where "cool" has business value.  In most other domains the use of 3D only obscures the information, unless it is intended to be more peripheral and the key thing is to show change or presence/absence of information.