Archive for the ‘Everything Else’ Category

Check this out. While taking a look at the traffic to/from my site, I decided to check the percentage of that traffic arriving from search engines. Of that traffic, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how good Bing appears to be doing! Check out the following graph:

While those results are unusual for today (the percentage is typically in Google’s favor by a wide margin, which it is here, but only when you tally all of Google’s sites together), what I have noticed over time is a small but steady increase of Bing traffic to my site. Much more than I *ever* saw out of MSN, that’s for sure. I know I’m simply mirroring what a lot of us have already said, but Microsoft seems to have done things right this time around with Bing. It makes me smile in my heart just a little bit.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I want to take a break from the typical format of my blog and share a story of mine. Saturday night, I went over to an uncle’s house for dinner and — long story short — told him he should have installed Windows 7 instead of reinstalling Windows XP after a massive crash he had a couple of weeks ago. He said he wanted to, so I decided to use one of my unused Windows 7 keys and install Home Premium for him. Things like AERO shake, thumbnail previews, and the combination of search/run generated genuine giggles of excitement out of him… and, as a Microsoft fan and blogger, that was actually really cool for me to experience.

You see, I get so used to this stuff that I actually forget there are people out there who have only maybe heard the casual mention of Windows 7 — much less ever seen it or actually messed with it! Every time I see Microsoft’s commercials where they show people being all excited about Windows 7, there’s a portion of all of that, that I wonder how much of it is all just marketing… and if anyone would really ever get that excited about Windows 7. Well, this situation with my uncle validated for me that people DO get excited about this stuff! I’m so used to the segue between versions of Windows that I have completely forgotten what it’s like to try a completely NEW OS for the first time and be excited about all the features it offers.

Something kind of random he said at one point was, “why is it that Macs don’t have any crashes or problems at all?”

Yikes.

My response to that was actually even-handed, in that I said they both have their ups and downs but the notion that Windows 7 is “just another Vista” like the Apple commercials try to peddle… that’s just all marketing, as I explained. So, out of the evening came the realization that actually seeing someone go from XP to Windows 7 can be more than just an upgrade, but an enjoyable experience! Unfortunately, I also learned that Apple’s embellished dishonesty for marketing gets through to people. At least he was never inclined to actually buy a Mac, he was just curious as to everything he’d heard. And honestly, with how much better of an OS Windows 7 is than its predecessors, for Apple to compare them and say it’s no better than the rest… well, let’s just say I wouldn’t feel bad comparing the latest OSX to the problematic issues of the past, even knowing the difference these days.

It’s just awesome to know that Windows 7 sealed the deal in the face of OSX-curious inquiry. =) Not that I have anything against OSX or those who use it — just Apple’s intellectually dishonest marketing of it vs. Windows 7.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Ron George is one of the UX talents on the Windows 8 planning team within Microsoft. That, in and of itself, is reason enough for this blog to keep up with his. Never mind the fact that he’s an innovator in his field. Today, Ron announced his paradigm shift in the world of UX: OCGM

Pronounced “Occam” as in, “Occam’s Razor,” the acronym stands for the following:

Objects: Objects are the core of the experience. They can have a direct correlation with something physical, or they can just be objects in the interface.

Containers: Containers will be the “grouping” of the objects. This can manifest itself in whatever the system sees fit to better organize or instruct the user on interactions. They do not have to be, nor should they be, windows. They can be any sort of method of presentation or relationship gathering as seen fit.

Gestures: Gestures are actions performed by the user that initiate a function after its completion and recognition by the system. This is an indirect action on the system because it needs to be completed before the system will react to it.

Manipulations: Manipulations are the direct influences on an object or a container by the user. These are immediate and responsive. They are generally intuitive and mimic the physical world in some manner. The results are expected and should be non-destructive. These are easily performed and accidental activations should be expected and frequent.

In other words, OCGM is Ron’s solution to the ever-growing problems present in today’s WIMP-dominated (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointing Devices) world of human-computer interaction. To quote:

The WIMP interface is a slow dying breed as our demands on user experience and the demands of user’s keep inflating. It’s time to start thinking in a new direction. A direction that sheds many of the harnesses of the old acronym and begins to explain the building blocks of the future. It will be simple, concise, and cover all of the bases we need. There is no need to rely on pointing devices, menus, or windows anymore. It’s time to let the experience be the interface, and the user to be in total control. The interface will begin to blend in with the experience and the experience will be the interface.

I’d like to once again point out the fact that this guy is on the Windows 8 planning team. These are the types of people who drive true innovation, and when you can get them to apply their game-changing ideas to your product(s), good great incredible things can happen. It’s just nice to know that people like this are working on my favorite OS of choice. Feel free to go to Ron’s blog and let him know what you think. Give him your opinions and be honest. Sure, he might be a 6’6″ ex-Marine, but he welcomes feedback of all types with open arms.

Link: OCGM (pronounced Occam['s Razor]) is the replacement for WIMP

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Remember the ginormous burger that Burger King was serving in China in celebration of Windows 7 for that brief period of time? What about the Windows 7 cake or the awesome Windows 7 MCE custom system? Well, I just stumbled upon another oddity… a cool oddity, but an oddity none-the-less. This one comes to us via an eBay auction that’s taking place right now (so you can actually nab this thing if you’re interested)! It’s a limited-edition Windows 7 Kubrick made by C.I.Boys (whoever the heck they are) that was given out in celebration of the launch of Windows 7 at Microsoft Hong Kong.

Check it out:

(I love the graphics on the belt)

 

(I thought the Windows 7 graphic was accidentally upside down until I realized the whole belt was. Doh!)

If you’re interested in purchasing it, they’re asking for a cool $90.00… not including shipping. I like the little guy and all, but not in a $90.00 kind of way, if you know what I mean. Hey, at least the seller left the option for you to make an offer, right?

Link: The eBays

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

UPDATE: We have winners! Thanks to everyone who participated and stay tuned as I’ll be bringing more contests like this to you in the near future. Winners are: @marriop, @markyb86, and @orionll! Congratulations, guys!

Yaaaaay, contest! Alright, I have 3 TuneUp Utilities 2010 licenses to give away to 3 people (one license each, a $50 value)! Each license is able to be activated on 3 machines, so if you’re like me and you’ve got Windows 7 (or some other version, it doesn’t have to be 7) on your desktop, laptop, and netbook, one license will travel far for you. If you’ve never heard of it, put simply, it’s one of the best all-in-one solutions out there for tweaking and optimizing your OS. I used to use this app on my XP installs before good ol’ Vista rolled around. Now, trying it again for Windows 7, I can honestly say it adds more value to the OS. The additions of their Turbo Mode and Live Optimization are down-right spiffy.

So…

… do you want to customize your boot screen and theme?

 

… do you want to TRULY delete data?

 

… do you want to optimize your system processes, registry, and boot/shutdown times!?

 

OF COURSE YOU DO! And guess what!? YOU CAN DO IT and a whole lot more with TuneUp Utilities 2010!

No, but seriously… it’s an awesome application. As for the rules and what not, this is a really simple contest. All you have to do is retweet a tweet, do a quick little scavenger hunt, then email me the results. It also doesn’t hurt to actually read a bit about the software. After all, you *are* competing for it, right? Might as well understand what you’re trying to win! If you want to download a trial version of the software to check it out yourself, you can do so by clicking the image below:

1 – Retweet the Following Message (all you have to do is click it if you’re logged in to Twitter): RT @msftkitchen Win 1 of 3 TuneUp Utilities 2010 licenses ($50 value!) Details on MSK: http://bit.ly/8V9n0Y

2 – Quick Scavenger Hunt: Start on this page of TuneUp’s website and from there, find the page that I took this screen shot from:

Hint: You can find the page in just 2 clicks from the page I gave you to start on!

3 – Email Me: Once you have performed the two steps above, send me a quick email with “TuneUp 2010 Contest” as your subject and in the body of your message, include the link you found the image on and your Twitter alias (click here if you’re configured for clicking email achor text and all the information you need will auto-fill — just don’t forget to add the link and your Twitter alias). That’s it!

When it comes time to draw winners, 2 winners will be chosen completely at random. The third might be chosen from random, but I’m reserving the right to select one depending on any given number of circumstances. From there, I will verify that you tweeted the message and that you’ve given the correct link. The winners will be selected on December 11, 2009 (next Friday). 3 steps to win 3 licenses with the ability to activate 3 machines per license. Easy peasy! Oh, and I’m going to be moderating all comments for this post since I just know that some spiteful bonehead out there will comment with the link from step 2. Har har!

Good luck!!!

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Caveat: I’ve been sitting on the information contained in this post for quite a while now, but it has finally perturbed me enough to put it out there for all of you (and myself, for that matter). If you would be so kind as to help spread the word, that would be great as the lie has spread like wildfire and taken on various forms, such as sites now reporting that Windows 8 will be 128-bit (ridiculous). Not only that, but the perpetrator that started this mess needs to be called out with fair warning given to all. What you choose to believe by the end of this post will be up to you, but my intentions here are to help sift out the garbage in a community full of journalists who – like me – truly bust their butts to bring you solid, unique, and honest content.

Most of you may recall the “exclusive” I posted on this almost 2 months ago now. As most of you may also recall, I’m no stranger to the LinkedIn profile browsing. Well, when I found Mr. Robert Morgan’s profile, I got WAY too excited for my own good. I whipped up that post as soon as I could, then took a step back to see if anyone else had found it. Well, as it had turned out, sometime like a week earlier, it had been, “found” by eightforums (I’ve linked the Google cached page for that link just in case they try to delete it and play none-the-wiser, as you can already compare it to the post on their page today to see that they deleted my comments calling them out on the issue). I say “found” because – as it turns out – it wasn’t really found at all. It was fabricated. Everything on that profile was garbage, and when you read back at what his job description said, it does indeed look like something a “journalist” would write so as to create one hell of a scoop. Check it out again:

Experience
Senior Research & Development Microsoft
Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry

 

January 2002 – Present (7 years 10 months)

 

Working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects. Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM.

Let’s critique this, shall we? First off, “working in a high-security department for research and development” is something that no employee working in those conditions would -in their right mind – write in their profile. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things pop up in people’s job profiles, but nothing so blatant. Second, Research and Development isn’t the Windows team. Each is its own department with its own funding and its own projects. At BEST, Windows 9 MIGHT be accurate here (as in, Research and Development is working on technologies that may make it into Windows much later), but it’s not. If anyone is going to be working on a 128-bit kernel for Windows, it’s going to be the architecture side of the Windows core team (David Cutler’s crew, etc.); not MSR.

I don’t think 128-bit is in the scope of anyone for the next 7-10 years. After all, 64-bit is rarely properly utilized these days – nevermind dropping 128-bit into the laps of devs and consumers! And that brings up another point… at best, 128-bit would exist only for very select industries that could truly use it right now. AMD’s Bulldozer project is real, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 8 or, I would imagine, Windows 9, either.

Alright, so… let’s assume that profile was indeed real. eightforums was certainly enjoying the traffic off of their initial “find.” As a matter of fact, they somehow managed to land an exclusive interview with the guy afterwards! Once again, I’ve linked to the Google cached page for the same reason I did a few paragraphs ago. So… whatever happened with that interview, anyway? What happened with it is that it was one great big old pile of BS, that’s what happened with it! It was a big, fat lie (along with the cake, of course).

Yes, your supposedly down-right and honest Windows 8 market-cornering buddies over at eightforums managed to pull the wool over the eyes of almost every major news site out there. Unfortunately, enough minor details lined up enough for those like me to jump the gun and post what we did, when we did and without ever verifying if this guy was even an employee in the first place. This stuff happens sometimes and, well, I don’t take too kindly to it. Especially considering how much time and effort I know I put into bringing you all the content that I do – nevermind how much time and effort the countless other real journalists around the community put in! Not only that, but stuff like this makes a mockery of the credibility of the sites you know and trust. We’re as human as you are, though, so I’m one who is fully willing to say, “hey, this guy fooled me and I’m sorry he ended up fooling you, too, vicariously through my post.”

Now, a couple of days or so after all of this stuff went global, I noticed a couple of my respected peers make some comments on this story that started to make me take a second look at it all. First, Paul Thurrott said the following:

Windows 8 To Be 128-bit Only? LOL

 

Wow. I have to admit, the most amazing thing about this rumor is that anyone believed it. I won’t single anyone out, but spare me. It’s completely and utterly bogus. Obviously.

The fact that this all got around to him in the form that Windows 8 was going to be *ONLY* was baffling enough for me, never mind seeing the next hit being doled out by one Steven Bink of bink.nu:

Bink says: Sorry but this is BS so to say. We are still in the transition to 64bit, That Morgan guy does not exits at MS

By that time, I immediately thought back to the crap I had already called out the eightforums people on and then… it all just made too much sense that they would be the ones to fabricate garbage like this. At this point, I have now also verified (thanks to two kind Microsoft folks for checking for me) that Robert Morgan is/was nowhere to be found in the employee database. It was all just a load of crap created by a site desperate for traffic and attention. They throw up frivolous posts just to somehow meander Windows 8 into the text to boost their rank in search engines for the keyword. Not only that, but their forum is littered with garbage posts that – once again – only exist so as to skyrocket their keyword density.

So, now we’re at this juncture ONCE AGAIN with eightforums. First, it was stealing content from my site (which, I hope I’ve made clear will not be tolerated any longer) and now, one big lie heard ’round the net. And to top it off, dishonest means obviously get you somewhere since this guy was apparently at PDC 2009 as press! How he got in, I have no idea but at this point, I wouldn’t doubt it if he really wasn’t there and his PDC coverage was also a big, fat lie. Everything he wrote could have been discerned from watching the keynotes streaming online. Not to mention, out of all his blabber about, “I wonder if we will hear about Windows 8,” he produced a whole lot of NOTHING! My favorite line of his from PDC comes from his PDC Day 1 blog entry:

What can we dig up about Windows 8? I see tons of wannabe journalists and some actually talented bloggers, how will we be different then all the others? We’ll bring you the dirt!!, we’ll interview the top minds at the conference in the next few days to get all the best information. Like always, members of the Windows 8 forums will get the stuff we just can’t post here, all that leaked information, we try to get all our members to say things off record and sneak them into the underground circles of Windows 8 Forums, only members can see!

“Wannabe journalists,” huh? LOL! Oh, the irony. Lot of top minds he interviewed there, huh? Lot of Windows 8 information they were able to dig up, huh? And leave it to this guy to not only pull the wool over everyone’s eyes a couple of times, but his loyal followers by creating a paid membership for his website as well! He’s actually going to charge people for his lies. Man, if you’re a glutton for being ripped off, by all means, whip out that Paypal account… but if you’re AT ALL wise – even if you’re a member on that forum and see me as the bad guy because I’m taking shots at your “leader” – you’ll take a good look at the big picture here and see that this guy has provided absolutely NOTHING of substance for his readers or for this community. Nothing. Just a bunch of empty promises and cliffhangers. Where’s the PDC 2009 Windows 8 info you were going to dig up? Where are the interviews with the “top minds” about Windows 8? Where’s that Robert Morgan interview exclusive you supposedly had? I mean, to see just how bad it is, take a look at his latest ENLIGHTENING post:

Seriously? You’re *that* desperate to throw Windows 8 (and italicize it, none-the-less) into a story? lol. Oh, the humanity…

So, at this point, I can’t spell it out much clearer for everyone. For some reason, though, I can’t help but wonder who you’re going to believe: Some nobody site trying to corner the Windows 8 market by littering their site with pointless references to Windows 8, or tried-and-true individuals who have been in this community for countless years reporting the good with the bad and truly busting their butts to bring you content with REAL substance? I certainly hope the latter, as people like me calling out sites like eightforums serves me no purpose other than wasting my time and creating drama that I would rather not have to deal with. In cases like this, though, it’s totally worth it.

Update: Be sure to go to his site to catch him poking fun at the frequency of road maps I post. Even I laughed at it; nothing like a good bit of roasting every once in a while.

Update 2: I’ve decided to remove the antagonizing comment about awaiting negative comments from eightforums and disable comments for this post. End of discussion. If you have something to say, feel free to email me. Thanks to those of you who left supportive comments initially. I really do appreciate it.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I love the snipping tool. If you have never used it and you take screen shots often, you may find it extremely useful. Previously, I used MS Paint for all of my screen shot needs. Well, after using both for a recent article, I noticed an inconsistency between the two. Check it out:

MS Paint:

 

Snipping Tool:

Do you see the difference? The inconsistency lies in the suggested text case for the file type. The difference in .png and .PNG makes all the difference in the world if you’re saving an image for the web. Linking Windows8.png and Windows8.PNG are completely different from one another; even though the names are the same, even so much as one character having the incorrect case will break your hyperlink. Now, while it’s true I could just manually save my image by typing the file name and the extension into the save box, the fact that the defaults differ for these two programs seems like a minor oversight with consistency. In fact, if I worked at Microsoft, I would probably push for a certain level of consistency across all Windows applications where things like this are concerned.

I love both of these applications and I won’t use them any less with this in mind, but after having noticed it, I looked back at my images folder for my site and I see just how inconsistent my image names are – undoubtedly based on which one of these applications I saved them with and then going back to link to the image based on how it resides on my server. Sure, that’s an oversight on my behalf, but I had no idea my behaviors had developed into that. Now I’m aware of it and, thus, the reason for this post. Not a big deal or anything, but when I run into these little quirks, I feel compelled to see if anyone else out there even cares. My last observation like this had to do with WinSAT. I wonder if they will ever fix that…

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

In this first of many interviews to come with select talents at Microsoft, I will be speaking with NUI (Natural User Interface)/UX (User Experience) designer, Ron George. Ron has been a designer on various teams at Microsoft since 2006, including the Zune team and the Surface team. Prior to his work for Microsoft, he provided his talents for some heavy-hitters, including Sony, Disney, Yahoo, and MySpace. Learn what NUI and OUI are, find out why he loves working at Microsoft, read about his upcoming book on design, see mentions of Windows 8 and much more. And, yes, even Chuck Norris’ name comes up.

MSK: Thank you so much for your time, Ron. To kick things off, how would you explain “NUI” to a 90 year-old grandmother who has never once touched a computer?

Natural User Interfaces are just a way of explaining the method you interact with machines. Some machines require tools, like a remote control, keyboard, or a mouse. People who specialize in designing natural user interfaces challenge themselves with designing methods of interacting with machines that require no tools other than the ones you were born with.

MSK: Finally! Hang on for me while I run to the resting home to visit my grandmother to tell her about this …… alright, I’m back. She hit me in the head with her walker and told me to never speak to her like that again. Perhaps not for 90 year-old grandmothers, but that’s a great way to simplify what comes across a bit daunting at first glance to those unfamiliar with anything beyond UI as they’re currently familiar with it.

Now, what about OUI (Organic User Interfaces)? Is this a field of design you’re involved with in any capacity? If so, could you offer some personal insight into what it is and if/how/when you see it becoming the front-and-center focus of designers industry-wide?

Organic User Interfaces are just computers or displays with odd or varying shapes. If you had a bracelet and the entire outer edge was a screen that wrapped around, this would be considered an OUI. The thing to remember about these, as we start to delve fast and deep into the technology of new user interfaces, is that we need to think, “is this right for this purpose?” What would serve the user better? Don’t use new technology for technology’s sake. Use it because it makes sense. Organic User Interfaces are already here, but we need to determine if they are right for whatever purpose they are being designed for. I have seen some OUI watches that are quite good and I think that’s a great use for them as well. I have designed several interfaces for OUIs and I find it quite liberating. With such a specific function and not having to worry about every nook and cranny, you can get some very cool ideations going.

MSK: Excellent, excellent point regarding taking a step back to question if something is actually useful or if it’s just there because it can be. Now, speaking of technology for technology’s sake, how about some of those futuristic concept videos Microsoft cooks up? How much do you think Microsoft is asking themselves the very question you pointed out?

The futuristic videos you see may or may not come from MSFT. It all depends. Sometimes MSFT gives challenges to outside vendors to think up something crazy and those are usually the videos that somehow get, “leaked” online. The true MSFT videos that are created internally, at least in my experience, have never been leaked. These are where the real ‘gold’ is. I saw the ‘courier’ video that was leaked (click here to see it -MSK) and it was very basic with few truly useful interactions. If that was done in house, it would have been much grander and much more detailed. People seem to forget about how large and how the scope of MSFT is beyond what you see today by 3-10 years.

 

We have some of the most intelligent people in the space working very hard every day on things for users that probably will not be seen for 5 years. Thinking about the future and what serves the customers’ needs is a passion that we all enjoy very much. Some of my good friends in Research – who I have worked with for several years on products – are all working on great things behind the scenes that may not be produced in their current form.

MSK: From the little we’ve been privy to on the outside, it seems like a LOT of great-looking ideas from various freelancers don’t end up in final products at Microsoft. What all goes into the decision of selecting a, “final” UI for a product? Likewise, is it typical for design ideas to be shelved for future product consideration?

This is a huge question. There are so many factors that go into design decisions that it would be difficult for me to even scratch the surface of it. Freelance or not, great ideas will make their way down the chain of command. Always. It depends on so many things, such as engineering, localization, patents and IP, design, existing metaphors, user experience, business need, customer satisfaction, use cases, scenarios, mental models, etc. The list is huge. This is where great design comes into play. You need to work against all of these other factors to ensure you get your improvement into the RTM.

 

The thing about great ideas is that you need someone that can sell it. Having a great idea is one thing, but having the ability to sell it, advocate it, and foster it throughout the process is where a true designer shines. Doing up a sketch and throwing it over the wall is the easiest way to get an idea killed. You need to really cook your idea out, give multiple options, sell it, and really get behind it. Get your peers and management involved. Try to hammer it home. The biggest skill you can have is not only coming up with great designs, but also being able to explain them and demonstrate them to non-designers and designers alike.

 

I was talking to a good friend of mine who is a partner at MSFT. Partners are the upper tier. During his interview, some of the feedback he got was that he would do well at MSFT because he could explain his ideas thoroughly. I pride myself on being able to explain things and demonstrate things. I think that comes from a long line of small companies I worked for when it was only 2 or 3 designers and I had to pitch everything I wanted to do to get funding.

MSK: Many of my readers (as well as myself) are all about the visual concepts (past, present and future) of the Windows UI. For those like us, Longhorn was the holy grail in its early days. We ate, slept, and drank Longhorn; anxiously awaiting the next build leak or screen shot to surface. Have you ever worked on the Windows team – and if not, would you like to?

I have never worked on the core Windows Team. I did lend a hand in Windows 7 with the Touch Pack while I was at Surface. I am also currently involved in Windows 8 (I know that answer perks your ears up, haha). When I think back about 15 years to when I started doing this, Windows is where I wanted to land. I was just a simple graphics designer working in Corel with no formal training. I saw Windows 95 come out and thought to myself “why did they do this? Why didn’t they do that? …. I think I could offer some better ideas.” After many long years of grinding and studying… I landed there and it was everything I had hoped it would be.

 

I know many of the people that work in Windows and I think very highly of them. If they had an interesting role, I would definitely talk to them about a possible fit.

MSK: That’s great. Windows is definitely the product I’m most passionate about from Microsoft. Although Windows 7 brought forth a major step in NUI integration and the hardware leveraging it makes the whole experience fun and stimulating, do you ever really see NUI experiences taking off with home users?

NUI is the future. MSFT works on the future. You could imagine that MSFT is one of the leading design innovators for the NUI space. If you imagined that, you would be correct. All of the top dogs at MSFT – Ballmer, Sinofsky, J. Allard et al – are all VERY customer-focused. If the customers want it, they will drive their teams to deliver it. MSFT is very customer-oriented and drives itself to push the boundaries of what it can deliver to the customer, to enhance their experiences, and to make their life better.

MSK: Speaking of Microsoft and its drive, you have worked for a number of large, big-named companies. How – if at all – does the employee experience at Microsoft differ from other companies?

When I first accepted the position at MSFT so many years ago, I told my immediate circle what I was doing. Their reaction was, “what the hell does MSFT need with a guy like you?” Everyone knows my style. I am loud, extroverted, a tireless advocate of good design, and I never give up pushing for it. Their reaction was just a mirror of public opinion. They thought that I would come up here, be beaten down, and then just do what they had originally planned. They could not have been more wrong.

 

When I first came up, I thought I was walking into a non-design/engineer-oriented crowd that would scoff at my ideas. What I got was completely different. When I came up, the most common reactions were, “Thank god you’re here… I am so happy that someone is here to think about these problems. I’m just too busy.” That was the reaction to my ideas. They were glad someone would take into account all of these user problems because they had gone without a designer for so long and had to make due with what they had.

MSK: Nice! Every Microsoft employee I have ever interacted with has sang nothing but praises for the experience of working at Microsoft. Now, away from Microsoft, I noticed via your LinkedIn profile that O’Reilly has all but finalized the pressing of a design book you’ve recently finished writing. What is it called, what’s it all about and who would you recommend it to?

I’m still slaving away at finishing it up and getting colleague critiques. Hopefully the title will be, “Designing Modern Experiences.” It’s going to be a 3-part book to hopefully pull the wool from peoples’ eyes about product design, process, and how to design things for the modern consumer. People have asked me what it’s like to be a product designer/experience designer and use all of these touchscreen devices, websites, and other misc devices. It’s pure frustration. You have to remember that I have been a party to over 200 user experience tests in NUI designs, have designed several AAA products, authored papers, spoken to most of the great design leaders, given seminars on natural user interfaces and interactions, and have implemented so many different things that – just from experience – I see tons of errors and problems in the design of everyday things. Not minor problems, but major problems in the core designs that we see and use everyday. This isn’t that most designers are bad. In fact, most of the designers I see today are quite good. The problem is they are delving into a space that is intricate and unique. They need to read, study, and practice to be good in this space. My book is hopefully one small step in trying to make them better before their pencil hits paper.

 

The 3 sections of the book are each going to be geared towards a specific function for reference:

 

1- The first part is going to be core concepts that every designer must understand before undertaking a project. These will include simple things, but mainly to gain a common language and understanding moving forward. I recently read, “Designing Gestural Interfaces” by Dan Saffer, and to be honest – no offense intended – question his ability to give good tutorship on designing a gestural interface. In one of his first thoughts, he got one of our core definitions wrong. I mean, this is like writing a book about, “creating the perfect sentence” and then getting the definition of a verb incorrect. When trying to explain the difference between a gesture and a manipulation, he got it flat-out wrong. I corrected him here . One of the problems we have in design is to come to an understanding of the language we all use. I think one of the main problems with his book is the title. It’s lofty and his book contains nothing about designing beyond a slight understanding of what the interfaces are. In each of these 2-3 page reference concepts, I’m going to have many guest authors write about their passions. I’m going to have several senior MSFT employees write about what makes a good designer great and what skills a designer should have before they go into a meeting with them. I think it will be very enlightening to hear from a senior-level engineer about his advice to designers that want to, “sell” him on a design.

 

2 – The second part is going to be a process for design from start-to-finish. I’m going to include how to write an experience brief, user scenarios, what to think about when creating personas, and things to keep in mind while prototyping, testing, and refining. I think one of the main parts of this section will be how to RITE (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation -MSK) test and how to get good results from that. I will have a few guest author UX leaders submit a few things here as well.

 

3 – The third part will be a relook at design patterns. Taking Jennifer Tidwell’s patterns from 2005 and giving them a fresh look and understanding. I will also put a few of my core principles in here as well about things I want deleted from every user interface ever created. Things like checkboxes, radio buttons, and wait UI need to hit the shelf. Their time is long gone.

MSK: Sounds fantastic! Your passion for your field of expertise is admirable and the fact that you’re culminating your experiences and advice into a book to help others is great.

To get a little random on you, your LinkedIn profile says you’re a former Marine squad leader. Based on that experience, could you beat up Chuck Norris?

I rarely meet other former Marines at MSFT (go figure, ). Although, I actually did meet a former Marine a few weeks ago in a Windows 8 meeting and I think we were both stunned. One of the jokes I always tell everyone is that everything I ever needed to know about being a great designer, I learned from the Marines. The first is to be mission-oriented. When you have a date and a budget, you hit it. No matter what you have to do, you must hit your goals. People do not want to hear excuses. If you have to work on Christmas to hit your deadline, so be it. If you have to hire people out of your own pocket to hit your deadline, so be it. Do what it takes to hit your deliverables and your reputation will always speak for itself. I always think of that great line from Glengary Glenross: “First place, a new Cadillac. Second place, you’re _______ fired!” That type of passion is what it takes to be great in this business. If you want to make the computing world a better place, it doesn’t happen with long lunch breaks and going home early. It comes from hard work and drive.

 

One of the biggest problems I initially had when going from the Marines into design was being perceived as confrontational. I am a big guy at 6’6″ and 275 lbs. I would always stare at people straight in the eyes and people from different cultures or just typical IT workers would be a little intimidated. I would get complaints about my presentations and how I conducted myself in meetings. The biggest change I made was to not stare straight into others’ eyes anymore. In meetings, I tend to look elsewhere, or to the audience as a whole. To scan the people rather than focus on one person, even when answering a question. I haven’t had any complaints for several years now.

MSK: Holy crap! 6’6″ and 275 lbs. fits the bill of an NFL player, not a designer! You should have a life-sized cardboard cutout of yourself included with every copy of your book with a little quotation bubble rising up from it that says, “First place, a new Cadillac. Second place, you’re _______ fired!” Just a little bit of value-added there to motivate your readers. Just a bit.

Okay, now it’s time for a few questions from others! There were quite a few, but so as to not take up much more of your time, here are the ones I’ve cherry-picked.

@WithinRafael asks: “What studies would you recommend for students looking for a track to UX-related work/design?”

I would begin with a few books to see if it interests you. I created a store at Amazon to keep all of my book recommendations in one place, so feel free to start here. There are a few books in there that are great, but the rest are good if you are looking for something to read. Great books are, “The Design of Everyday Things,” “Don’t Make Me Think,” and anything by Bill Buxton.

@maryjofoley asks: “How much do different teams share (ex: Zune HD UI influencing other products)?”

All teams share. The ability to share things is another question, though. Some teams just do not have the resources to go out, find materials, ask for them, and implement them into their own particular products. One of the great things about the NUI initiative that is going on right now at MSFT is just that. They are collecting all the NUI projects from around the org and bubbling them up for other teams to see, use, and learn from.

@energizedtech asks: “In the interface, will we see a Windows where the monitor replaces the physical desktop where the keyboard and mouse are unneeded?

I think this can already be implemented but the “Desktop Metaphor” is something I want to get rid of completely.

@eganist asks: “Why can’t the UX procedures concocted by Jensen Harris be used everywhere? Office 2007 and Windows 7 were a dream. VS? Not so much.”

Jensen didn’t work in Windows. One of the key things about MSFT is to remember that each team works on their own schedule and own budget. So implementing features would be up to that individual team and vision.

MSK: Well, Ron, I would like to thank you once again for taking time out of your busy schedule to provide us with an insightful interview. It is always interesting to hear from folks like you who are obviously incredibly instrumental within Microsoft, but who remain, “behind-the-scenes” to most of us not in your field. To wrap things up, if you can, share with us what you’re up to these days and where we might find your work present.

Well, last Friday was my last day at MSFT.

MSK: Well, alrighty then! hahaha.

I have started my own design business and am going to start consulting with a wider set of select clientele. Although its only about 6 of us right now, we do offer end-to-end solutions on everything from Product Design to complete Experience Design. The main reason for this is to try and spread good interface and experience designs to a broader audience. I will still continue to work with MSFT on a majority of projects and I have so many friends over there, it’s where I want to be in the end game, of course. In fact, I have already received my first two projects from MSFT and am working on them now. With more free time, I can help many more teams than I could working there full-time. Eliminate the typical employee stuff and just do design… it enables you to spread the love more. I love the place, but right now I see myself trying to help more people than I could before. It’s hard to try and help non-profits and medium-sized businesses – even more-so large businesses – while working at MSFT due to legal restraints and competitive issues. What most businesses don’t understand is you don’t need to have someone as specialized as us around all year. You just need some good concepts and designs up front with some good principles to adhere to moving forward towards implementation. Current design teams can be taught the basics, given some concepts, and massaged to completion.

 

So since this is my first interview after opening my doors, I will officially announce my open for business here on your blog. I am open for business and now producing proposals for interested companies to fill their needs.

 

Ron George, Inc. – Focusing on designing emotional and engaging experiences that have the greatest impact on your most important audiences.

You can visit Ron George on the web at http://www.rongeorge.com, or you can shoot him an email him at rg (.at.) rongeorge (.dot.) com! And if you had any doubts, check out what he has written at the bottom of his site:

We are the Seattle based Human Computer Interaction Specialists. Give us a try and you will see
why Microsoft has chosen us to be involved with Windows 8 planning.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this interview as I certainly had fun speaking with Ron about Microsoft and his field of work from his perspective. Feel free to leave your comments and any questions you may have for Ron. I’m sure he’ll stop by and say hello every once in a while and check in to see if anyone has any questions for him. Alternately, you can shoot him an email at the email address provided above.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

This is more an observation than anything else, but I’m highly optimistic about the outlook for Microsoft where the web is concerned in 2010. Why? Follow along to find out.

Those of you who have been around since the early days of the web when competition really started getting heated between Microsoft and Netscape know how important online market share is to Microsoft. And these days, it’s all about advertising. Whoever has the most web real estate to run the most ads on with the most agencies/companies contains the midas touch and that’s all there is to it. This week at PDC, Microsoft took us on a journey through the beginnings and vision of Internet Explorer 9. They also unveiled Silverlight 4 in all of its majesty and I have to say… I’m extremely excited about it. Having time to digest all of the information from PDC 2009, I can’t help but run the following equation through my mind:

Internet Explorer 9 + Silverlight 4 + Bing = The Year of Microsoft on the Web in 2010

If (and that’s a huge, “if”) Microsoft can pull off their vision for IE9, I may very well make the jump back to the browser I used to know and love (IE7 is about the time I jumped ship to FireFox, then Opera). Now that Microsoft has spilled the beans about hardware rendering in their browser, I’m sure every other browser out there has now shifted their model to include the very same technology. It’s off to the races and while another company may beat Microsoft to the market, I think Microsoft has a couple of tricks up their sleeve. After all, their new philosophy is to say as little as possible and over-deliver when the time comes (the polar opposite of the Windows Longhorn mentality, basically). With that in mind, I don’t see Microsoft stepping up to the plate with IE9 so soon without having full confidence that – even *if* someone else beats them to the market with similar technology under the hood – they will do what they have set out to do and they will do it better than everyone else. One would hope, at least.

Let’s step away from Internet Explorer 9 for a moment and talk Bing.

Bing. As a brand, it’s starting to catch on. I couldn’t stand the name initially, but it has managed to grow on me. As a search engine, I’m not sure that it will ever fully replace Google for me, but I find myself using Bing more and more. It provides additional results for me that Google doesn’t (and for how I use Google, that’s huge) and for shopping and travel, I look no further. Where I’m concerned as a consumer, Bing has the shopping/travel market share 100%. Also, I’ve spotted Bing as being the catalyst for traffic to my site more and more. Sure, it’s a very low percentage compared to Google, but it has knocked Yahoo out of ranking. Slowly but surely, Bing keeps creeping up in market share. I hope that trend continues as Bing is truly worthy of being an accessory to Google (as I said, I doubt it will ever be a full-on replacement for Google, but you never know what can happen years down the road).

Now, this is the point in which I note the obvious combination of Google and Firefox. Although Firefox has increasingly become a sluggish product for me (even on my blazing new gaming rig), I still prefer it over IE8. Even in compatibility mode, I notice a number of the pages I frequent acting strangely in IE8. Now, what are the odds of someone actually using and enjoying a combination of Bing and IE9? Google has become a habit. It’s almost instinct to have Google as your main page, so to change that behavior, it would take quite a concious act – one which I may be willing to go through with when IE9 finally drops. Once again, I doubt the combination of Google/Firefox will ever drop below the combination of any other search engine/web browser, but it’s an interesting thought none-the-less.

Lastly, we have Silverlight 4. What an exciting time for developers and Microsoft alike. Silverlight 4 takes Silverlight well-outside the realm of being labeled an Adobe Flash clone and finally places it into a territory all its own (they have been pulling away from that comparison all along, but Silverlight 4 finally commands all the respect Silverlight deserves). If developers can jump on the Silverlight/WCF boat and really help the technology take off, it will be to the benefit of everyone! It almost seems foreign that a technology like Silverlight could come along this late in the game, best Adobe Flash, and become the new standard in interactive/high-def/streaming media, but I really hope it does. And with the rumors of Windows Mobile 7 containing Silverlight controls (at the very least, there’s Silverlight for Mobile), I do not see this technology going away anytime soon (and that’s a good thing).

There is so much more I have to learn about all of the technologies above, so I’m not trying to pretend to be some expert on it all. These are just my personal observations and a culmination of thoughts from the excitement generated by putting all of this together. It seems that if Microsoft was/is ever to finally gain/reclaim web browser and search engine market share, 2010 is going to be the time for it. Now, it may not happen all at once in 2010. It will take time, just as Bing has. Unfortunately, there’s a negative stigma out there about Microsoft’s products in regards to the web. It has almost become a fad to hate Internet Explorer and any type of search engine that Microsoft creates, but now is the time when people should step back and actually give this stuff a chance (or a second-chance, as the case may be for IE9). Yes, at the end of the day, Microsoft is a business. They want to make as much as they can, but then again, that’s no different from any other company. The trick is to put a product out there that will not only be useful, but possibly life-changing… and when I say, “life-changing,” that can be as simple as something someone can leverage in addition to what they already know and love.

I was sold the moment Bing provided results for an exclusive for me that Google failed to. As for how I use the web, that’s a product I’ll stick with. Best of luck to Microsoft in 2010. So many people love to hate them, but I, for one, am excited to see what they put out to enrich the lives of those who give their products the fair shot they deserve. Feel free to chime in with your comments and let me know what you think.

Oh, and for the first time ever, I’m compelled to attend a MIX conference. It’s shaping up to be fantastic next year!

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Alright! I’m currently sitting in LA, prepared for PDC 2009. I’ll be in the company of folks such as Rafael Rivera (withinwindows.com), Tom Warren (neowin.net), Mary Jo Foley (zdnet.com/microsoft), Paul Thurrott (winsupersite.com), Long Zheng (istartedsomething.com), Ed Bott (zdnet.com/Bott), and many others! Those folks will be live blogging again this year, so be sure to check it out if you’re interested.

As for me, my plan is to keep all of you updated on things I find interesting/relevant via this very post. I’m going to keep it up top, so you can either bookmark this page directly, or you can simply visit my site via the main URL and you’ll see this post right up top throughout the duration of the conference. As I update content, I’ll ping content servers and post to my Twitter, so if you don’t want to keep refreshing this page or whatever, you can simply await the content to fall into your RSS feeder or Twitter page.

I’ll be taking plenty of video and pictures to post here, so you’ll be able to see the hijinks that take place when the lot of us get together. In the past, we (I) have thrown wet toilet paper out of a window 20 stories up at unsuspecting people below and if you’ve never done that before… it’s highly recommended. lol. But that was years ago when I was just a young whipper-snapper.

Well, that’s it for now. I just wanted to kick off my official PDC 2009 post. I encourage you to get involved via the comments section below! Let me know some things you guys and gals would like to see and I’ll try to accommodate however many requests I find feasible. More soon!

-Stephen

Update 01: I’ve been snapping photos like crazy since the flight here. These are pictures that are everything from a sunrise to a cool Predator recreation out of metal at Santa Monica to a bunch of us sitting here in the press room today. I’ll just keep adding pictures to this space as I snap them throughout the length of the conference. Hover your mouse over the images to see a description and click on them for a larger version.

-Stephen

Update 02: Well, today was fairly lengthy and boring, unfortunately. It was not my day for the conference, but I hope tomorrow will be better with mentions of IE9 (hopefully) and *maybe* something beyond Windows 7 (SP1 is all it would be at the most, I’m sure). Regardless, I have pictures to share from the past couple of days. Before I post those, though, here’s a really awesome video of an Alien vs. Predator demo running on an AMD machine with ATI’s latest DX11 GPU. This video doesn’t quite capture just how awesome it looks in person – but, hopefully, you’ll get the idea. Check it all out:

And even though today was extremely uneventful for me and my interests, it was a very fruitful day for my blog where Windows 8 content is concerned. Here’s a recap of the posts I made today:

Short: Windows 8 is Definitely Getting the Hyper-V Treatment
Forrester Research says: 1% of 653 Businesses Surveyed will Wait for Windows 8
Windows 8: More Roadmaps

More soon!

-Stephen