The best way to create attractive user interfaces in .NET.
How do I create attractive user interfaces in .NET, with glossy buttons and fluid animations? You can point me to third party frameworks, but I would also like to understand the technical details.
Maybe have a look at WPF .
In terms of third party libraries:
- DevExpress
- Telerik
- Infragistics
There's a free toolkit out there called the Krypton ToolKit that has some nice glossy controls.
I hope someone else will post on where to find out about the actual technical details as I usually don't go deep into this code.
WPF is expected to eventually replace Winforms. Some of what you learn with WPF can be transferred to Silverlight as well.
I believe .NET will be too much for a lot of things, especially AJAX. I've learned to use jQuery or even go directly to the Prototype library (check scriptaculous ).
As for the glossy buttons, get a great designer . If this is a pet project, you can find great Photoshop tutorials. But, if it's a real project for a client, sink your money into a rock star designer. It will make your life so much easier.
Or better yet, don't use non-standard tooling or GUI methodology. If there is one thing I can't stand for in software, it's the use of skinning and styling to make things look better than usability cost.
Silverlight 2.0