Visual Designer for MAUI/WinUI

Dear Telerik Team,

As a dedicated and experienced computer scientist who has specialized in the domains of Ontology Development, Graph Data Systems, and Graph Information Theory, I write to you with a pressing concern that I believe is shared by a significant part of our developer community. The recent strategic decision by Microsoft to forgo a Visual Designer for UI design has sent waves of confusion and discord through the ecosystem of UI/UX Design and Development.

With this absence, Microsoft has inadvertently cast aside not just Telerik, but developers of all kinds who are involved in crafting native desktop experiences. It's puzzling to determine the precise reasons for this decision, but if it's primarily business-oriented, I dare to opine that it's a peculiar one at best.

Remembering back, I recollect that a crucial motivation behind Microsoft's creation of Blend was to establish the much-needed separation of concerns between UI design and UI implementation. This was not just a handy tool, but a philosophy that fundamentally transformed how we approach UI development. Rare indeed is the desktop UI developer who possesses the innate talent and skill set to conceive effective and aesthetic user interfaces.

The inception of Blend stimulated a new paradigm that nurtures the coexistence of UI design and UI implementation as individual workflows, each executed by different teams with their own expertise. A UI Designer could work within Blend to create robust UI prototypes and promptly present these to stakeholders. Subsequent iterations of Blend even allowed designers to craft, through declarative means (no-code/low-code), sample data and data-binding that could be repurposed as the UI design transitioned into the implementation phase.

The dismissal of a UI designer solution leaves a void in this vital workflow. Consequently, this essential separation of concerns is at risk of collapsing, and the potential ramifications of this development could be detrimental to our field.

This is where I believe Telerik can take a pivotal role. Telerik is renowned for its dedication to developer success and its strong suite of UI controls and tools. You have the opportunity, the talent, and the credibility to build a UI Designer for MAUI and WinUI that could fill the vacuum left by Microsoft's recent decision. By undertaking this task, Telerik could continue to carry the torch for the essential philosophy of separating UI design from UI implementation, a philosophy that has driven so much progress in our field.

With respect and hope for the future,

Tavi Truman