Last night I was thinking over my own position in the web development world. Many questions arose. One kept coming back. Does Adobe has a point in taking Muse out of the equation? There reply that the world is shifting towards 'data' is one that made me wonder. I know it's hard to think this way since Adobe isn't very empathic to there loyal customer base but I will try anyway.
The 'data' answer from Adobe made me reconsider: did I trust to much on Adobe's (business)direction with the introduction of Muse that there is still a need for designers to create websites without coding? Muse isn't database driven or does have any native database connectivity. It's webdesign made easy for designers. In that regard I was thinking about a course I did as a designer in PHP, MySQL and CSS almost 15 years ago. I laughed at the fact that even the titles of the buttons of my website learning project had to come from the database with PHP. Yes, it was possible but did I need that? Most of the time they are static anyway! So I kept on doing it as I learned beforehand: designing without code. Since that time the world of web design and development is growing mature and expanding. Am I the one who is blind that I keep on working without code and by any means still want to work that way? Children of very young age learn to code nowadays. Coding is (almost) a must have skill it seems. Wasn't it luxery to keep on thinking that I could do without coding?
Then I was thinking about a carpenter with his tool of choice, the hammer. He still can't do without but there are many alternatives which are faster and even more reliable then hammer and nail. He has to work with those tools too. Those tools are even more his livelyhood then the classic hammer. He had to evolve with time. Do I have too? Do I have to learn to code because the world is like that? Do I undermine my own business not to adapt to the world by keeping on to Muse because it's so good in helping me to create and design without coding? Slowly I start to think I do. It's hard but it's true.
Looking at other apps that could replace Muse in the future they seem more or less based on something hybrid: code and design. Do I like it? No. Do I need it to keep my business going? Yes.
So back to Adobe as a company. Maybe, just maybe, Adobe did all of us a favour with the introduction of Muse. They respected there 'old' customer base of designers who were not into coding. But in fact the world was already changed dramaticly. So the decision to abondon Muse as a way of developing and thinking is there finally. It's hard, very hard for us. There are many lessons to be learned here. One of them is that I relied on one opinion of a company that has shoed me the way for many years since there development of Postscript. As I mentioned before in this thread I don't believe in there future anymore as a business leader and the way they act toward there customers is below par.
There is another way out if we want to stick to Muse. Shouldn't we buy Muse together from Adobe with crowdfunding? If we can persuade a company who wants all the Muse customers which are willing to pay through crowdfunding for the initial development (and partial ownership?) wouldn't that be nice? Adobe has a way out of all the negative PR they get with the killing of Muse, they get there money and the community is happy because they are now closely involved as users and (partial) owners in the development and future of Muse. Part of the agreement could be that Adobe is willing to interact in the future with the new developers to keep the connectivity with other Adobe apps.
Maybe I want to reconsider my thoughts about coding again, since I still have the feeling I better can't change a winning team.
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