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Brent: I'm Brent Weaver and you're watching uGurus TV. The must watch web series to give
a more profitable and in demand web professional.
I'm here in Denver, Colorado at Adobe Create Now, and I'm having a chance to hang out with
Terry White, who is an Adobe Product Evangelist.
Terry: World Wide Design Evangelist.
Brent: Okay. What does a world wide design evangelist do?
Terry: I go around the world talking about Photo Shop Illustrator, Light Room, End Design,
and basically the design aspect of our products.
Brent: How did you get started in that?
Terry: How did I get started in that. Well actually I started over 17 years ago at Adobe.
I was actually back then what was called a market
specialist. Today you would call that position a
solutions consultant or system engineer. And so my job back then was to go around with
the sales team and while they would go talk to
companies about maybe upgrading to the latest version the products. I would do the technical
demos. Prior to that I was actually teaching the
software. So teaching Photoshop and Illustrator and back in those days, Pagemaker. Yeah, that
long ago. So that's how I got started.
Brent: Okay, so 17 years at Adobe. Most of it on the design side. What has changed over
that period of time when it comes to web design?
Like what have you seen change in that period of
time?
Terry: What I've seen change over that period of time, certain things change, certain things
remain the same over time. Is that web is probably the most fluid of the three product
areas. I mean design, design is design. When you have
a product like End Design, it's been around for
over ten years. Of course it gets new features, you know ever new version. Illustrator over
25 years, Photoshop over 20 years. But now point
to a web-tool that's over ten years old. They're aren't that many. It's because the webs constantly
changing and the requirements are constantly changing. So one tool usually doesn't
survive that long. I mean Dream Weaver has been around for a while, but, in most cases
the tools themselves have to be reinvented to meet
the new demands.
Brent: So If there was one tool, you guys had showed several tools today. You guy showed
a lot of wiz ***, a lot of cool little work flows.
If there's one tool that a web pro should keep their
eye on, what would that tool be right now?
Terry: A web pro should keep their eye on, I would probably say Edge Reflow. It's hard
because ReFlow is kind of answering that question
you just asked work but I also want to say Edge
Animate. Because I think Edge Animate has more appeal across a wider segment. Being
able to easily do HTML5, CSS, Javascript, animations
in a visual tool that keeps getting better with each
revision. So I would say those would be the two I would keep my eye on.
Brent: One thing that some web pros have gotten maybe uneasy about from a product
standpoint has been the product, Adobe Muse. Tell me what your position is on how you think
a web pro can leverage Adobe Muse? Is it threatening their way of existence?
Terry: Here's my take on that. If you're defining yourself by the tools that are available,
then you're doomed for failure to begin with. It's
no different than me hiring a professional contractor to do something at my house or
me heading to Home Depot. That contractor is not
worried that Home Depot exists because he's going to fix the things that I broke anyway.
So as a web professional a new tool that comes out that allows people to do something that
maybe you could do, or do better, how does that hurt you really? Because chances are
those people weren't coming to you anyway. So if
you can do it better great, then you can be above
what the tool submits itself to. So again, I would say to web pros, you shouldn't feel
threatened by any new tool whether it's Muse or anything
else that comes out, because, you should be better than what a tool does. In other words
if I pick up a hammer it's really who's holding it
and wielding as apposed to the hammer itself. Why be mad at the hammer?
Brent: Definitely a very good point. A lot of what you guys are pushing is Creative Cloud.
So how is Creative Cloud helping web professionals
and other creatives be more profitable? How is it
helping them build business?
Terry: Well what it's doing is it's leveled the financial models. For example, to get
started in the past you'd have to lay out hundreds if not
thousands of dollars to even get the software to
begin with. I think our lowest software was $399 if you pick one package. The lowest suite
was like $1,800 to just buy it out right. Then
every 18 to 24 months which is usually especially too
long in the web world. Having to wait for new features and then when those new features
did come out, having to pay another $500, $800
to upgrade the suite. So now it's a flat cost monthly that you can easily monetize if you're
any working professional. Whether it's 20 bucks
a month for a single app or 50 bucks a month for the whole thing. And that's without the
first year discount. I don't know of any working
professional that can't afford 50 bucks a month. And
if that's the issue, then chances are it's time to get a job.
Brent: Maybe find something else to do.
Terry: Find something else to do, exactly. So having access to everything for that one
price and without having to think about it or having
to pay an upgrade fee, and always having the latest
tools, and always getting new features as they come out. I can't see how that would
be worse than what you were doing before.
Brent: And that makes sense for the freelancer, lower bared entry, to get the tools and then
how does that, how does that benefit scale up when you talk about teams and agencies?
Terry: Same things with teams and agencies. So the price goes up to $79 a month, I believe,
$69 a month I think for the team version and,
but you're now getting 100 gigs of storage, more
support, more content, more things. And from a small design shop or team based. If I own
a shop for example, and I've got six designers
or six web professionals and I have them coming and going as freelancers or contractors. I
centrally control everything and turn it on and off as
people come and go. So the team version, that's what it's geared for.
Brent: So with Creative Cloud having releases constantly, I mean what's next for Creative
Cloud when it comes to web pros? I mean you guys
went through some of the tools today, but I feel
like Creative Cloud is just infancy.
Terry: It is.
Brent: What's the big thing that's going to be revealed some time in the future or at
least some hints, maybe give me some hints.
Terry: I would just say that it doesn't stop where it is now, the apps you see today. I
mean obviously our claim to fame with our big apps
will continue to go on. Photoshop will continue to
get updates and get better. But I would say the thing you would have to look forward to
is not being limited to just what you see today.
The Edge tools didn't exist three years ago. And now
there's four of five Edge apps. So what you'll not only see is new feature updates to the
apps we know and love, but new apps. And more specialized
apps, specifically solving problems.
Brent: Very cool. Well Terry, we appreciate you taking the time to hang out with us. Hopefully
you'll have a little bit of time to enjoy Denver while you're here.
Terry: Well I see a little snow coming down here.
Brent: We've welcomed you with some snow. Very nice, we'll we appreciate you taking
the time to chat with us today, and wish you the
best of luck...
Terry: All right, my pleasure. Thanks.
Brent: Absolutely.
Terry: Take care.