Gadgetory

the windows phone version 7 brought a brand new kind of well the zune it started this a little bit with zune HD right but Windows Phone really you guys had this very strong design it was a very strong very different design concept than write anything we'd seen right from Microsoft and I think a lot of people were kind of blown away I know I was right I was not what I expected right and you're now taking that and it's really starting to propagate through all of the other products are a lot of the other products of Microsoft right windows 8 you're seeing some this metro or metro style the xbox dashboard is right looking more and more like Metro style so how important it is it is it to bring all that stuff together and and at what point did you realize that you need to unify our you aren t you know I think we as designers knew way before we actually execute it that we did have a very mixed messages to consumers or let's call it end users right and our brand as far as the external community and end users we're concerned look very fragmented because our design languages were inconsistent maybe more importantly I don't think things worked as well as this supposed to write and so we internally and we somewhat externally like to joke and say you know the expectation for our products to work and feel like they're part of a family have always been quite high I like to think that right now is finally when we're delivering on that promise so one plus one could equal more than two so we're introducing new math and Microsoft scary thing scary thing is a fuzzy very scary thing in a computer science company right yeah but i like to use it we say one plus one equals eleven when we when we do what we do and that is effectively a lining first in principle we get that scales to interaction design so interoperability and cohesiveness same similar conceptual models the way you use a phone cognitively should use similar concepts of what you're using in windows and or xbox that's the priority then the look and feel also then now sends a message that you're within a certain family right and your expectations are set so we've always felt that it was important I think to answer your question directly it was about two years ago that I recall an event where we as many some of the design directors in charge of the different divisions doesn't least League of design League of design so to speak we call it an LTE leadership teams went off site for day and a half and we actually step back and for the first time put up all the work using screenshots hard copies not not digital shots right and we feel the wall of 20 feet long top and bottom and tried to parse that's called an information worker from consumer but it really took a look from server and tools all the way with to what's going on in some cases what's happening and MSR but windows xbox at the time zoom and started to look for commonality amongst all this and you know saw an awful lot of it but we're very disappointed in what we're seeing as well right and what a waste of development efficiency and energy complain room from consumers as well I think that and we I know as in in the press we had been giving Microsoft a hard time because there was a promise that we're reading all of them have all these pieces that they're all so disparate right and then you've got no common rills so we did we did as a community and this wasn't anything we needed permission to do it was always on us right not just design but its program management anyone's making decisions shame on us for not bringing that together as well as we could have it you know and so we've just took it upon ourselves to say you know what we're making calls for the different divisions it's important that we really start to develop a more unified promise and message to end users right right so at a very grassroots level at 1-1 hand we just start to create these small working to use to actually start lining natural user interface gesture right certainly within our divisions even that was a challenge but across divisions even more of a challenge and then the look and feel the Metro design style and language became something where different teams were now cross pollinating right we're sharing designers we're talking about icons we're sharing what palette of colors people are using and this continues today in a more formal state but it then we're just doing our job you