For over a year, Microsoft has used its Expression Blend solution--a user interface design tool intended to dovetail desktop and web applications--in an attempt to bridge the gap between software designers and application developers, and now Adobe is trying to bridge the gap between developers and designers with 'Thermo.' Microsoft approaches this problem with a solid background in developer tools, while Adobe is utilizing its deep designer knowledge to take the next step to address the issues of designer/developer workflow by assisting the two companies to work better together. Adobe's Thermo will make it simpler for designers to create rich Internet application (RIA) user interfaces, and Adobe officials said that Thermo will enable designers to build on familiar workflows to visually create working applications that easily flow into development and production. Steven Heintz, senior product manager for Thermo, said that the new product under development at Adobe will see its first public beta release later in 2008, followed by a general release in 2009 and likely a long beta process. Heintz added that one challenge is that designers and developers take different approaches to creating a new RIA experience. Heintz explained that they wish they had more 'devsigners'--hybrids of designers and developers, who know both XML and HTML, along with Flash and Photoshop--because Thermo fits in the middle place between designers and developers. Thermo will be a standalone product that works with all of Adobe's design tools.