End users are very different these days. 5 Years ago, internal application development projects were easy. You provide all the grey boxes and grids that tabulate data and allow for editing, that’ it. People won’t expect more. If it can get work done, it is acceptable.
Nowadays, everyone expect software and technology just works. Also everyone is expecting great user experience. All the mobile platforms and touch based devices which provide intuitive and easy to use user experience are educating everyone that software should be easy to use and easy to learn.
Fortunately, for most development platforms, especially the .net platform, there are tonnes of free and licensed UI components available to developers. This is really a life saver. Want a grid that not only tabulate data but provide Outlook like sorting, grouping and filtering? No problem, just a few lines of code you got it. Want a drag-and-drop enabled tiles with expandable view? No problem, just drag the control to the design surface. Need charting and sexy visual BI? Just provide the data source and baam, it automagically chart for you.
I am working on a copy of DevExpress for WPF and I am generally really satisfied with it. DevExpress provide good documentation and the forum is really helpful. The code sample generally could help get me started on any control, while the API documentation and the forum will get me further. I am currently mostly using the GridView,RadMap and the Charting controls and there is nothing I could complain about.
I was especially delighted by the RadMap control, which provide a great step by step tutorial for getting started. I was able to get a map control which I could show off to my customer with 15 minutes of coding! That’s cool and helpful.
On becoming a Professional Developer 