Microsoft battles to win over 'sceptical' designers

Microsoft is desperately trying to persuade more designers to use its Expression Web design tools and Silverlight, which is a potential Adobe Flash-killer.

Microsoft is far better known for its relationship with developers than with designers but as the software giant begins to step on Adobe's toes with its design tools, it has started hiring "user design evangelists" to help spread the word -- both to the design community as well as within its own campus.

One of the first designers to be recruited into this new role was Shane Morris, who joined Microsoft at the start of 2007.

Morris admits when he was first approached, he thought the recruiter had made a mistake.

"My first reaction was, 'Microsoft wants to evangelise about design? Don't you mean us designers have to evangelise to Microsoft?'," Morris told ZDNet Australia in a video interview conducted at the Microsoft ReMIX conference in Melbourne last month.

"Microsoft has a great relationship with its developer community. It was a whole new world when it came to starting a conversation with the designer community, which is understandably sceptical about the idea of Microsoft providing designer tools," said Morris.

Before joining Microsoft, Morris said he was a user of Microsoft products -- but not in the way they were supposed to be used: "I was using a whole load of Microsoft products, including PowerPoint, but not for presentations. I used [PowerPoint] for mock-ups, wire frames, storyboards etc. but not products that were intended for the design audience".

Morris explained that the role of "user experience evangelist", will help educate designers as well as Microsoft.

"It is a new role for Microsoft, reflecting its entry into a new market and engaging with an entirely new audience.

"The role is about Microsoft evangelising to the design community about our tools and technology but also taking feedback from the design community about what they need from our tools and technologies and what skills they need," added Morris.