Keeping GUI Development skills sharp

Question

I've been developing in Java Swing for a while now, and I'm starting to feel that Swing-based desktop applications are feeling a little stale and are tedious to develop.

I'm seeing new applications that look very sleek and modern, like TweetDeck and Synthesia (a piano game). Despite the wisdom in Haase & Guy's "Filthy Rich Clients," I imagine that writing applications like these in Swing would be quite a chore.

Presuming that desktop applications won't totally disappear within the next 5 years (or that the division between the web and the desktop will become seamless), what UI languages and technologies should front-end developers be exploring to keep current? What's the next big thing?

Answer 1

Microsoft's WPF is probably one of the newest, coolest technologies out there.

It allows you to make much better looking GUIs.

You should also look into some of Microsoft's Expression products. They let you put that extra flare into your GUIs.

Answer 2

I'm not sure there's "the next big thing" in desktop UI development. If anything, "the next big thing" is a multi-touch based interface ala popular tablets and smartphones. Given that, I think it might be smart to learn how to create multitouch UIs by downloading a sdk for a mobile phone or tablet that supports multitouch.