As part of my first semester technical research, I looked at technologies for building desktop RIA’s. I split my time between learning Microsoft’s Expression Blend for building WPF applications, and finding my way through Adobe Flex Builder to in turn create AIR applications.
From the lessons, tutorials and readings I did on Expression Blend I create a couple of my own simple applications, one for displaying a Flickr feed with some neat effects, and the other a local XML file with more data and a little 3D. I feel pretty comfortable working with Blend, it’s an amazing tool for quickly building beautiful interfaces.
I didn’t get quite as in depth with Flex, as a designer I found it a little limiting in its component based structure. After putting together a couple of small connected applications, I had my first introduction to AS3, incorporated SWF files within a Flex application, and learnt a lot about the AIR framework and putting an application together.