MVC Zen Garden

I'm tinkering with Asp.net MVC in my un-spare time now. (top work Phil and team!)

And I have a recurring, whacky marketing/design/envangelisation idea:

The MVC Zen Garden

If you've installed Asp.net MVC, then you'll know that when you open Visual Studio and select:

"Create Project > MVC Web Appication"

...you get a rudimentary sample application.

It's blue. Simple. Nice enough.

I'd love if there was a website, modelled after CSS Zen Garden, where designers could offer alternative CSS files (with images) for your default Asp.net MVC application.

So the starting look of the MVC Zen Garden page is the default asp.net mvc sample app, something like this:

It is exactly like the default MVC app, but it offers a range of styles to select.

Once a style is selected you can download the stylesheet and images for that 'skin'.

Hence, the user can select way out options like 'default red':

And I imagine that there may be some other slightly more powerful creations.

Perhaps, given infinite time and unlimited budget, some team of powerful 'creatives' may be capable of unleashing what I think of as the ultimate expression of mankind's ability to wield superiority over the electronic pixels, and achieve a vision of artistic perfection not unlike my own dream theme, a skin I like to call, 'Slave Leia':

And in time, other great thinkers of our age may be capable of imagining more extreme CSS-based modications.

What do you think? MVC Zen Garden... thumbs up or down?

There could also be a visual studio plugin that lets you update your own sample app in one click, to any of those available at MVC Zen Garden.

There's the idea.

I think it's solid. And simple. And has a growing market.

I'd implement it but I am swamped in crazy ideas of my own.

I think that you ought to implement it -- or failing that, petition your local Hanselmember

My book "Choose Your First Product" is available now.

It gives you 4 easy steps to find and validate a humble product idea.

Learn more.