Making an argument for using Silverlight on a project

Question

When I approach any new web application projects now, I like to offer up the idea of using Silverlight to the client. Often if it is a public facing application I meet a dead-end when the argument of "downloading the Silverlight plugin is an inconvenience to the user".

I can use the argument that it would be cheaper to the client to implement Silverlight for the solution, due to my own skill-set. And that I can provide a richer, more scalable interface with Silverlight ... but none of that wins over the argument of "downloading the plugin".

I'd love to get some opinions on how to get past or counter this argument, as I'm a big proponent of Silverlight and would love to have more clients agree to take that leap.

**I'm not looking for an discussion on Silverlight vs Webforms vs MVC as I truly believe you can accomplish most solutions in all, it's really just a matter of personal preference, especially with OpenVideo coming for HTML.

Answer 1

Don't speak tech-language with customers. Do the same thing I do with support of IE6. I charge extra 30% of the total cost of the project to support IE6.
You can charge extra from customers who don't want to use Silverlight.

That said, your customers have a point - Firefox and other, none IE, browsers have significant percentage of the web surfers, and we all don't like to install new things. It seems you will have to wait until Silverlight catches (or until html5 kills Silverlight)

Answer 2

Silverlight should come into picture when you are trying to address a rich internet application experience.

Yes, Silverlight needs a plug-in just like Flash needs Flash Player. You will never be able to win if the argument revolves around either downloading a new plug-in or user base of Flash vs Silverlight.

What would help you is to do objective analysis in terms of some of the following factors:

1. Strengths on your current team. If you have a .NET team, it makes sense to use Silverlight as it integrates well.

2. Do you need a workflow that clearly seperates Designers vs. Developers?

3. Estimating the cost of development. example flash media server comes with a cost vs free silverlight streaming from Microsoft.

All of them will only make sense if you really need a rich internet application, if not you are better off sticking with ASP.NET MVC.

Answer 3

You could take the same route Microsoft does with its own site and create a Silverlight-less version of the application, with a notice that the "full experience" is available by installing the plugin, but whether that's even worth the extra effort depends on how badly you want the application to be in Silverlight. Not an extremely constructive suggestion, I know, but that's a difficult issue to get around.

Answer 4

Bring some numbers. What percentage of desktop users have Silverlight already installed? What is the percentage expected to be next year? I don't see how you can even begin to make the case without knowing the trends.

Answer 5

Are you cheaper than another contractor who is equally skilled in creating flash applications (or Javascript for that matter)? You're not going to be able to convince the client based on the fact that it may be cheaper (quicker) for you to develop, unless it is massively cheaper. Also consider that the client may not have any way to really gauge pricing.

Furthermore, there is increased risk in adopting such a new platform. People aren't as skilled in it yet, and the available talent pool for maintaining any Silverlight apps is small. Business types will consider risk as another increased cost of the platform.

In my opinion, the only way to sell Siverlight (or Adobe AIR for that matter) is on the advantages of the platform, not on the costs. What can you do in Silverlight that is very difficult or impossible to do with other tool sets? If I was the client and you couldn't answer that question, I'd show you the door.

(note: I have no experience with SilverLight, so I have no idea how to sell it)

Answer 6

I'd suggest you research who their "user" is up front before the meeting where you suggest Silverlight.

Is the typical user a developer, in which case devs tend to be a bit reticent about installing a plug-in, but if they are a Microsoft centric dev they may already have it.

Is the user one of those social website junkies that seem to have Yahoo, Google and every other toolbar under the sun installed at once, they are unlikely to care about another plugin.

It may also be worth being able to demo the plugin installation with different browsers (probably with a custom styled installation) to show ease of installation.