design in the trenches with chris bernard
TRANSCRIPT
Design in the trenchesChris 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
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.
User Experience principles
• UsefulNew capabilities that customers want and need.
• UsableEfficient for familiar and easy for unfamiliar tasks.
• DesirableBuilds emotional connections; both familiar and new.
• FeasibleAchievable on time with available technology.
OfficeUser Experience Design
Word 1.0
Word 6.0
Word 97
Running into Fitt’s Law
Nathan Myhrvold's 1Nathan Myhrvold's 1stst law of software law of software““Software is a gas”Software is a gas”
Adaptive Menus: Office 2000
“Long” Menu
“Short” Menu
Rafted Toolbars: Office 2000
Task Panes: Office XP
Some Tipping Points
Word MenusWord 1.050Word 6.0100Word 97200Word 2003250+
Tool Menus & Task PanesWord 1.02Word 6.07Word 9715Word 200030 menus50
task panes
Time for a change
Fast at any Speed
Avoiding the Junk Drawer
obsession to detail
Mastering Details
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
VistaUser Experience Design
Design GoalsMake getting what you needefficient & easyMake getting the results you want in Windows more…
visual & directMake 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
Our Process
Customer research
Selected usability focused projects for Office 2007
1. Office 2003 benchmark
2. Eye tracking
3. Card sort
4. Internal longitudinal studies
5. The “Truman” show
6. Office 12 benchmark
7. Extended usage study
8. 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
The Paper Prototype
1000 Card Pickup
Measuring results
What Microsoft has learned
people want more functionalitybut 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
Designing at Microsoft
Question & Answer?
Thank you