Adobe Muse - How do we feel about it?

[Vlad]

I have just read and article in .Net about Adobe's Muse software. It is not the first of its kind but it is extremely intuitive. Web Designers would probably think of it as inflexible, however others might see it as opportunity. My concern is that there would be too many people of the second case. The question is - How do you feel about it? How would this affect us as future web designers? Would less people seek our services? Or would this software die silently as the similar ones before it?

Share your thoughts, please.

[tomjeatt]

I think the problem with all of these kind of solutions is that, no matter how good a graphic designer you are, unless you've got an understanding of how to structure a website then you're going to come unstuck at some point. A software tool can't teach you about content strategy or site architecture for example. I agree it looks promising, but it looks like a good tool for someone with experience but who really hates front-end coding.

How would this affect us as future web designers? Would less people seek our services?

There are a lot of tools out there that let you do your own accounts, your own conveyancing but accountants and solicitors seem to be doing ok! When it comes down to it, for a lot of small businesses the training cost of learning to use Muse (and that's assuming they have a good enough graphic designer to design the site in the first place) is likely to be more than hiring a professional developer. And anyway, if it's that good a tool then we can use it ourselves, double our productivity, and rake in twice as much cash!

[Vlad]

Good answer I like it

Thank you Tom

[jim]

An amusing side note: I just tried to view the video in Opera 11, the video loaded in a modal window behind the page mask - when I click the play button it unloads the video because this behaviour is attached to the page mask! Not a great advert for Muse, Adobe.

On the substantive points I think Tom nailed it.