So the guys at Adobe have been busy this year…it seems. I would say “hard at work” but if you walked around in circles for a week…you burned a lot of calories, but I wouldn’t categorize that as productive. Just a few weeks ago Adobe released a beta preview of their new HTML5 editing software, Edge. And now they have released another application used to design web sites called Muse.
I’ll get right to the point: I don’t get it. The premise of this application is that somebody at Adobe sat down and said “Hey wouldn’t it be cool if you could design a web site without having to write a single line of code?” In fact, the humorous part of all this is that it wasn’t 2…or 3….or 10 guys sitting down saying this…just one. There’s a fine line between a stroke of genius and an idea that belongs crumpled up in a waste basket…oops, sorry…recycle bin. So this guy has a dream. He dreamed of a world with no code – so what did he do? He spent the next 16 months writing code. And after 16 months of coding…what do we have? A BETA application. So, he’s going to have to write some more code. And if he wants this application to be successful I imagine there will be a few patch releases or version increments, maybe a service pack – so that’s going to mean more code.
Ok, so – before you read any more of this post, you have to watch the “trailer” for this dream within a dream. And I apologize if you have to watch a 10 second commercial for NVidia graphics cards before you watch the trailer. I mean COME ON Adobe! Are you serious? You’re actually going to monetize on announcing your software release. Oy vay!
The sound bites from this little ditty range from clueless, to troubling. Here are a few of my favorites (and I use that term loosely):
“…They are someone who just wants to focus on design…” – Ummm, ok – then focus on design. Leave the development to the developers.
“…Revolutionize how a designer creates websites…” - Not hardly, you basically took two or three of your high end, expensive apps and dumbed it down to something that you’ll probably charge $199 for. But in all honesty, the real pros will just stick with the high end apps because they don’t want to learn your new Kindergarten tool. You’ll trick a few people into buying this, or you’ll just end up giving it away as a door prize at the next 3 or 4 Adobe events.
“…They don’t have to know what CSS is, javascript, anything like that…” – Dang, too late! They already do, so what’s the point? I seriously know dozens of designers that handle client-side code just fine. How do you think they’ve survived this long? So now what’s your point again for making this app?
“…In 5 or 10 years, I don’t think very many people will be coding in order to design web sites…” - Are you kidding me? I don’t even know how to respond to this. Apparently, Muse will just jump out of the box and make your website for you in 5 or 10 years. I guess they’ve already figured out how to work with databases, XML, APIs, cloud computing, and it can handle secure connections so you’ll probably develop your next large scale eCommerce solution with just the click of a mouse. Oh wait! You don’t even need a mouse any more? It can just read your mind!!!
Ok, sorry for that last one. I got carried away. Adobe needs to focus on what makes it successful – and I don’t think this fits that mold. This is a solution looking for a problem. Designers and developers work together and are successful because of each other, not in spite of each other. For decades, we’ve all gone to see a specialist instead of a General Practitioner for our medical needs. We’ve learned that specializing in a field leads to greater success. Adobe Muse is a step in the wrong direction. I wonder how long it will take before they realize that.
