Brian Goldfarb wants your suggestions for MasterPages templates (presumably) to include with VS.Next:
The initial vision was to create 10 unique page layouts -- think 3 column layouts, 2 column layouts, etc. that each have five unique color schemes. These layouts would be simple Master page files using CSS to control the layout/color scheme. We would put contentplaceholders in the appropriate areas for where content should be derived and everything else might have static HTML place holders (for a treeview, menu, bread crumb, etc.)
But as I got to thinking -- I wasn't sure it would be enough -- is this helpful? Would it be nice to have 50 or so very professionally laid out master pages that you can use to begin building your site?
My answer? YES. If these templates were "very professionally laid out", that would be one of the best things you could give us developers. If they're badly coded and ugly (life the FrontPage templates that came with every version of FrontPage I've ever used with the possible exception of FrontPage 7 [I think that's the current version] which I never bothered checking), then they would be more harmful than good, not just to the developers (many of whom will use them regardless of quality) but harmful to MS (by making VS/ASP.NET look like FrontPage) and harmful to the web in general ("you're either part of the problem or you're part of the solution").
The important thing is that the templates are done "right" because developers will use them regardless of quality for one very simple reason: even an ugly template set is better than what most developers will come up with themselves. I was lucky enough to realize this early and I work with graphic designers. Real designers will come up with something 100 times better in a fraction of the time it would take me to produce something that would probably get no better reviews than "that looks like a programmer designed it."
Developers like to think that being good at writing code means we can do it all, that is mostly not the case. Some defend their ugly babies by saying "looks don't matter, the program/web app works and that's what is important." That isn't true at all, of course. Users even say things like that yet tests involving those same users will almost always show that people prefer sites that are attractive over sites with content and functionality. The key is to give them both and not sacrifice one for the other, ever. Even the most g33kish of developer tools, the command line/DOS window obeys this rule and that is why it defaults to black and white (or something close to that) and not lime and magenta.
MasterPages allows ASP.NET developers to make the web app/web site they want and apply a design to it with more ease than almost any method I have ever used. I normally start sites now without a design (or with too little of one to matter) and create a default MasterPage template (using Paul Wilson's version of MasterPages and, when the designer hands me the html (or PDF, preferably), I slice and dice the design and drop it into the template. The last 3 public sites I did using these templates came out pretty well, I think, these sites were all designed by professional designers and use MasterPage templates
Could these sites have been made without MasterPages? Absolutely. But I wouldn't want to think of how much longer it would take to make changes and additions if that were the case. Every project has time constraints on it and the quality of the ASP.NET site that can be produced in almost any given time constraint rises dramatically (in my experience) when MasterPages are used.
I think that a great set of templates would be the best tool that Microsoft could give ASP.NET developers because MasterPages is an incredible tool and once a developer uses them once, I think they'll use them for every project afterwards. This will lead to gain in the quality of our output as well as increase our productivity.
All of this assumes, of course, that the template sets are written better than the sites I link to above, or course. They aren't exactly perfect. The default templates should be perfect. There is no reason for us to start off with templates that are flawed because those flaws will be seen as "the right thing" by many devs and because we're going to add our own flaws anyway, we should be able to start with a clean slate. :)