Gadgetory

well Microsoft is known for kind of over chroming in some ways and when you know there was just this kind of little hubbub Steven Sinofsky posted some some of the you know Explorer and you guys were talking about getting around through files and folders and searching and this is exposing all of these pieces of chrome that would allow you to write you know ostensibly do that better but it looks very daunting to an average user right because you just want to get it the things you need to get at right quickly so there is this battle at Microsoft because if you look at Windows Phone right chromeless experience everything goes away you just see Big Tex big images you're not it's not information dense that's right how I mean how do you merge this variant and it really you've got it's not just that it's not just that you're trying to bring that sensibility over but it's a question of how do you treat that content of that data I mean does office need to be as chrome heavy as it was previously right does does the does the Eagle Windows Explorer have to be as chrome heavy as or what you know previous short actually we don't think so but it does pose some interesting and difficult challenges in that we do still have fundamentals that we have to deal with in a very dense environment let's say a view right we still need to control what you see for a second and third at least through design principles so now we don't have a crutch like chrome to help us yeah push and pull the visual so composition layout font scaling contrast ratios all become the technique that's absolutely required so we have to up our game so to speak in solid visual design principles motion principles etc in order to create the right level of hierarchy so that users don't get overwhelmed with too much information right because chrome did perform a little bit of that role to help us manage what you saw for a second and third so I think it's a fun challenge and I'm excited to share it when we're when it's time yeah but you know we're not done we've got a lot of work to do but i think it's a it's a language and a philosophy that is very extensible into all environment and you so this is a you think a coming core for Microsoft as a whole is that yeah you know let's deke remit I in a way that obviously is going to make sense that's right but you really companywide that's right our owning this concept I think it's exciting to people because if anything we've watched windows and you know for me I'm I'll say this I'm a Mac user and i really love Windows Phone I like what I've seen of Windows 8 the metro piece but then there's the other piece that's very familiar windows and I'll admit you know it has not been that interface has always felt overly complicated to me yeah and the idea that you guys are owning the concept of company-wide scaling that back are kind of simplifying it to make sense for obviously for different scenarios that's right he's exciting and you and you you're serious about that very serious about it that's and I tag taught you your word I know I mean it's yes very serious about it myself and a bunch of others many others in the design community as nearest even last week had a day where we went off site and we actually talked about all the levels and details of what we just described and reinforce this commitment that it's important that we we practice and learn from each other so that it really does is something that sticks ultimately it's the right thing for the business gives us the right thing for users right and we want this is the this is a challenge we have we strip out the extraneous details the risk is that we look boring right and how do you manage motion and gradients so you don't see a gray day but you feel it well when there's a motion non-existent because you'd even know it happened but it reinforced function this is where we're going and this is the level of craft that we have to up our game to now because stripping all that out comes at a risk if we don't execute it really well right but ultimately it's your content right and content and information is getting denser and denser and we believe the way only way to scale in the future is to prepare ourselves to strip out things strip ourselves out of the equation so that what you're feeling and seeing and using is all about you it's not about us and that's that's the long pole if we went down a path of being too concerned about surfacing ourselves in that equation there's no room for you and there's already too much noise Enoch vision right so I I and the design community and Microsoft are committed to this we still again have a challenge of how to scale into different environments different different interaction models but philosophically no one's batting an eye is this it is this a different Microsoft and it was ten years ago and you've been here 20 years I think you know it's it's a in many ways it's certainly different in in the I think the confidence of design design as a collective level and it's because it's not no longer just about designers or researchers I think the organizations are becoming more design oriented so there's a collective confidence that we can talk about aesthetics like this and it's not a foreign language that we have to box up and only use with in special crowds we can have this kind of conversation at the executive level where there were more receptive and understanding of what we're talking about and in fact very much ways in many ways supporting and pushing us to do more right and the other side is there is a even in the 20 years this is still the same Microsoft the good parts of it right it's it's a it's a super it can be an intense but you're working with super smart people right that all want to do the right thing we just have to funnel ourselves and really focus on communications and doing the right thing and take the noise out of the system and really deliver the way that Metro is trying to deliver it by filtering out again things that are not necessary and only things that matter and that happens at a larger scale and I think those two things in combination maybe make for a little different Microsoft but it feels I think design is confident very empowered and it feels very collaborative right now so what's the next thing for you what's the what's that your next challenge you know the next challenge I think is what we're right in the middle of we still have a productivity experience and our set of experiences that the company has yet to release that is still in design with we have more work to do at a corporate level to bring the things that we're discussing into a into a plan that scales where it's no longer starting just as a grassroots level and we have a lot of goodwill but we need to organize this or organize it so that it sticks it becomes operationalized right and the artist in me also doesn't want to over define it because will kill the darn thing right you know darn thing meaning this this notion of the qualitative aspects of subjective maximus of design yeah that comes from experimentation you know a sense of humor and all those other things that keep us light right that's really because we could go the other direction where we take this thing too seriously