My co-worker Steve and I are here in Redmond this week for a WPF Bootcamp training session. We started off by meeting the WPF Product Unit Manager, Ian Ellison-Tayler, and Lead Program Manager, Rob Relyea. Ian ran through some existing WPF applications floating around the intersphere. As early as it is for WPF, there are some cool apps already. Take a look at iBloks, definitely a fun little app. The British Library has a cool XBAP application as well.
Amongst all the glitz and glamour of the pretty pictures and transitions demoed and blogged about are the features of WPF that make those things possible. One of the questions I found very intriguing involved how Xaml and the "Element-Content" model would affect future standards. The "Element/Content" model provides the ability to dress up what is still your standard button with content of all shapes and sizes. Adding animations, movies, complex text to buttons with ease will open up the options for designers and developers to question what is a functional and usable layout for their software. It was met with snickers, but the comment that market dynamics would play out the designs that are acceptable really holds true that the design standards are moving from the platform groups to the designers. What an excitingly simple concept.