Designers, Designers, Designers..

Q.What do you expect from Microsoft going forward in the design space.

I meet with a lot of customers in many forms of communication. I often am surprised not by the "we are thinking of adopting Silverlight/WPF" meetings but more, "We have adopted them, but we need help".

When I get to the bottom of it, it's something they face, well all face universally, in that "we need more muses / inspiration".

I used to struggle with this years ago, when I conjured creations inside Flash. I'd sit there for hours struggling to bend Photoshop to somehow produce a design that I could take to the next level.

My intent was to always raise the bar, both personally and hopefully amongst my peers.

I see this as a critical flaw in the Adobe & Microsoft campaign going forward, in that where do people go to draw inspiration and what life raft can be thrown to them should they stare at the blank <CANVAS>.

Steve Ballmer has stated we committed to design, and we have lots of talent inside the firewall whom - we probably don't amplify enough. It's something I'm keen to explore further but, you the audience, the readership. What would you like to see from Microsoft around design,.

What are we doing wrong? (keep it constructive heh).