Design in the trenches Chris Bernard, User Experience Evangelist, Microsoft

All the content in this presentation came from my hard working design peers at Microsoft, I didn’t do any of this work, I’m just sharing their good deeds. All photos in this presentation are from istockphoto.com unless otherswise noted and are used for educational purposes. For office, all of the principles, thoughts, etc. came from Jensen Harris. For Windows Vista, ideas came from Jenny Lam and Tjeerd Hoek. Do a web search on these guys (I suggest Windows Live Search <ahem>) to find out what they are up to today. They are all brilliant design peers and I hope this presentation helps you learn as much from them as I did. Please visit www.microsoft.com/expression and look under the knowledge center to fine a video of me giving this presentation. Or try: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/f/f/1fff960f-51a2-44b1-b033-bf25a3c7c7ab/BRE001.wmv

All the content in this presentation came from my hard working design peers at Microsoft, I didn’t do any of this work, I’m just sharing their good deeds. All photos in this presentation are from istockphoto.com unless otherswise noted and are used for educational purposes.

For office, all of the principles, thoughts, etc. came from Jensen Harris. For Windows Vista, ideas came from Jenny Lam and Tjeerd Hoek. Do a web search on these guys (I suggest Windows Live Search <ahem>) to find out what they are up to today. They are all brilliant design peers and I hope this presentation helps you learn as much from them as I did.

Please visit www.microsoft.com/expression and look under the knowledge center to fine a video of me giving this presentation.

Or try: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/f/f/1fff960f-51a2-44b1-b033-bf25a3c7c7ab/BRE001.wmv

UX

Beginnings

Xerox Star

Experience Rewarding Moments

For Microsoft, it started with a clear sense of mission … … with the desire to be more than we are today. A highly coveted brand. A more skilled competitor. A better partner. A more profitable entity. A maker of more productive and enjoyable experience. A legacy.

… with the desire to be more than we are today.

A highly coveted brand.

A more skilled competitor.

A better partner.

A more profitable entity.

A maker of more productive and enjoyable experience.

A legacy.

User Experience principles Useful New capabilities that customers want and need. Usable Efficient for familiar and easy for unfamiliar tasks. Desirable Builds emotional connections; both familiar and new. Feasible Achievable on time with available technology.

Useful New capabilities that customers want and need.

Usable Efficient for familiar and easy for unfamiliar tasks.

Desirable Builds emotional connections; both familiar and new.

Feasible Achievable on time with available technology.

Office User Experience Design

Word 1.0

Word 6.0

Word 97

Running into Fitt’s Law

Nathan Myhrvold's 1 st law of software “ Software is a gas”

Adaptive Menus: Office 2000 “ Long” Menu “ Short” Menu

Rafted Toolbars: Office 2000

Task Panes: Office XP

Some Tipping Points

Word Menus Word 1.0 50 Word 6.0 100 Word 97 200 Word 2003 250+

Tool Menus & Task Panes Word 1.0 2 Word 6.0 7 Word 97 15 Word 2000 30 menus 50 task panes

Time for a change

Fast at any Speed

Avoiding the Junk Drawer

Mastering Details obsession to detail

Contextual Tabs

Dropdown Gallery

Grid Layout Gallery

In-Ribbon Gallery

Quick Access and Magic Corners

Mini-Toolbar: Closer to the Cursor

Larger control labels

The Ribbon for Word

The Ribbon for Excel

The Ribbon for PowerPoint

Vista User Experience Design

Design Goals Make getting what you need efficient & easy Make getting the results you want in Windows more… visual & direct Make people feel great about their experience… creating a positive emotional experience

First Impressions

Set up and welcome

Start menu, Start button

Taskbar & Tray

Window management

Glass window frames

Live Icons (thumbnails)

Explorer

Common File Dialogs

Top 200 error messages and notifications removed, fixed or improved

Control Panel

Our Process

Customer research

Selected usability focused projects for Office 2007 Office 2003 benchmark Eye tracking Card sort Internal longitudinal studies The “Truman” show Office 12 benchmark Extended usage study Beta survey and visits

Office 2003 benchmark

Eye tracking

Card sort

Internal longitudinal studies

The “Truman” show

Office 12 benchmark

Extended usage study

Beta survey and visits

Selected usability focused projects for Vista 3000+ users in 1:1 research or small group research during the making of Windows Vista Instrumentation data was gathered from 8000+ XP users 20,000+ users participating in instrumentation programs to gather usage and configuration data and info through survey panels Tracking 150+ common tasks for ease of use in Windows Vista 30+ consumer families using beta since 2005 to give feedback on the day-to-day experience Families in 7 countries in field research (US, India, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Finland, Israel) Ethnographic research was conducted in Finland, Korea, Brazil, India, Russia, and US. Engaged with international enterprises to understand their baseline use of XP and monitor improvements with Windows Vista as beta has been deployed For Living with Vista we have received close to 5000 comments from 50 families (US and international) since the inception of the program at Beta 1 in August ‘05

3000+ users in 1:1 research or small group research during the making of Windows Vista

Instrumentation data was gathered from 8000+ XP users

20,000+ users participating in instrumentation programs to gather usage and configuration data and info through survey panels

Tracking 150+ common tasks for ease of use in Windows Vista

30+ consumer families using beta since 2005 to give feedback on the day-to-day experience

Families in 7 countries in field research (US, India, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Finland, Israel)

Ethnographic research was conducted in Finland, Korea, Brazil, India, Russia, and US.

Engaged with international enterprises to understand their baseline use of XP and monitor improvements with Windows Vista as beta has been deployed

For Living with Vista we have received close to 5000 comments from 50 families (US and international) since the inception of the program at Beta 1 in August ‘05

The Paper Prototype

1000 Card Pickup

Measuring results

What Microsoft has learned

people want more functionality but want it to be presented as less Source: Jakob Nielsen

the experience is not part of the product— the product is part of the experience

The experience is the product

Where to learn more Get links to the following: Jensen Harris Blog, Microsoft Office Product Manger Microsoft Design Web site Microsoft Expression Web site Windows Vista Website Office UI Standards Vista UI Standards … at: www.designthinkingdigest.com Look for a Design in the Trenches Content at www.microsoft.com/expression

Get links to the following:

Jensen Harris Blog, Microsoft Office Product Manger

Microsoft Design Web site

Microsoft Expression Web site

Windows Vista Website

Office UI Standards

Vista UI Standards

… at: www.designthinkingdigest.com

Look for a Design in the Trenches Content at www.microsoft.com/expression

Designing at Microsoft

Question & Answer?

Thank you