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Why did Tjeerd leave the Windows team to go work for Frog Design? Was it because he was listened to inside Microsoft? http://www.frogdesign.com/press-release/frog-ap...
Got it.
The musicians and emotional architects weren't listened to. At all. Even surrounding the sound. I do note that both Tjeerd and Jenny were involved in that process and both have left. So have some other people involved on that process. Ask yourself why. Hint: they weren't listened to. The marketers, the lawyers, and the geeks involved didn't put the commitment into Vista to make it a breakthrough product like the iPhone is. Ask yourself why that is. Or, better yet, go to Hillel's new site and send yourself some flowers.
As for "Nokia doesn't understand good design", I say hogwash. Nokia UI's are so consistent that I never have trouble finding my way around any of their devices.
Hopefully Microsft will listen to Tjeerd on their next project and Frog Design will pay him more then he ever would have earned at Microsoft.
I've been saying 'we and us' but I'm not really one of the geek group any longer. I've morphed to the other side and while I still get my geek on from time to time, today I find myself in awe of the people who can design an iPod or TiVo. The ones who make the complex easy. They are who I try to emulate. Until they are appreciated (and come to hold some power) in the halls of Microsoft, Sony, Motorola, and Nokia companies like Apple will keep gaining mindshare. And marketshare follows mindshare.
Hopefully we don't need to wait eight years for Windows to get some magic, er, emotion back.
Julie is working against momentum, though. Tell a Windows user that their file manager needs to be different, for instance. Hell, go in and tell Chevron's CTO that he needs something different. He'll probably kick you out of his office.
Are you some sort of all knowing design guru?
Do you think Microsoft in the 2000's, has become IBM of the 1980's? What is your perspective of why/ why not?
Also, I had a little talk with a Google executive. He told me that usage on the iPhone is off the charts. That they are seeing more usage than on any other device where Google's maps are included. A huge amount more.
I find that some geeks and MBAs have found out that design equals business. But now we need to teach them that it doesn't matter WHAT design you choose, but that some designs are objectively better than other designs. The failure of Windows Vista and the victory of the iPhone should convince Microsoft that the right design matters.
Design is not just a matter of taste - and the geeks and the MBAs are NOT the ones to choose which way to go, designwise.
By the way: I don't know what to make of this, but www.theyrebeautiful.com has some serious problems in Firefox ... :-/
Larry: yes and no. Microsoft is still disrupting the world in some places and still moves faster than IBM in a whole lot of them. I just did an interview with an IBM executive and it's clear that they are moving to being a huge consulting agency. Microsoft still hasn't done that and is still trying to make products that change the world. Whether or not they are successful we can argue about it.
Who cares? "Developers, developers, developers." Remember, that sad company called Apple, Inc. (how trendy) lost the war and 95% of the market. They sent developers to events, t-shirts, doodads.
But, you're right. But the world is changing. Back in the 1980s you could get major press and kudos with a character-mode DOS app. Today? Your app better look like Vista or the iPhone or no one will pay attention to it.
Designers are gaining power on technology teams. Even Microsoft realizes this and is why they are throwing tons of their best developers onto teams that build the Expression line of products which are aimed mostly at designers.
The next gen Zune will struggle if it doesn't leverage some of Apple's emotional design ideas.
Kudos to the MSN Live Earth designers.
It looks like they did a good job with Live Earth streaming this weekend.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9740511-7.html...
When technology has emotion attached to it because it is so damn fun & accessible, that is when it explodes (look at the iPod, iPhone, Wii, etc.), that is when you really see people enjoying technology.
That is when you have to simple (especially when you work for the company that makes the product).
It is really easy to see why companies like Apple, Nintendo, etc. just plain get it, and it is hard to see why companies like Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola just don't get it. It is so simple yet so hard to understand.
When it does work it takes great photos, but it certainly is not even close to as fun to use as the iPhone is.
As for the Vloggie awards? It's obvious you are reading Valleywag. Anyone who believes a single word on Valleywag deserves what they get. They don't care about the truth. It's pretty obvious you don't either.
Everyone who earned a Vloggie award has one. If not, my phone number is 425-205-1921. I haven't gotten a single phone call yet and no "journalist" (and I use that word lightly) from Valleywag has called to verify the "facts" they are reporting either.
Wouldn't know: didn't work on my Mac. Hello, are we in the year 2007?
The business side of the world is not very creative (if at all) and business schools just keep crankin out the same old management types. Of course, there aren't many Steve Jobs. The geeks are just the tip of the problematic iceberg.
http://blendingthemix.com/2007/07/02/mac-versus...
This is exactly why today the consumer market is where things are happening. It used to be business first and hand-me-downs for the consumer market later. Today it's the reverse. And that's why MSFT, bolted to IT as it is, is the legacy back-runner.
Take one example. The iPhone and the Exchange mail business. The FUD on this by pundits without a clue of tech trends is simply amazing. The talk is always about how the iPhone which everyone seems to enjoy using will flop because, allegedly, it can't work with Exchange, and what Apple has to do and how it needs to capitulate, yada yada. None of these people ever frame the problem as: how can MSFT redo Exchange to run smoothly with a new generation of devices like the iPhone that people want to use? How can MSFT take advantage of emerging opportunities, as opposed to how others must bend to MSFT? This isn't the old Soviet Union, but apparently the message hasn't reached MSFT yet.
"Expression line of products which are aimed mostly at designers."
BTW, Expression hasn't been the spark MSFT had hoped for.
I've been back on campus for some Microsoft contract work in the last few months, and got a chance to chat with Tjeerd a bit on his last day. Tjeerd's shoes will be hard to fill. If there is a design personality, it tends to be sensitive and a little introverted, and it's hard for designers to feel successful in the aggessive, fast-talking, bluntly critical culture of Microsoft. Tjeerd was able to succeed within that culture, and create a design-friendly island. But, when it comes down to it, design is not truly valued at Microsoft, and that's a big reason why Tjeerd and other highly talented designers decide to try other things.
When something like the iPhone comes along, I get a little hopeful that Microsoft will be reminded how valuable design is. After all, the iPhone's success will be all about it's design. The technology is *not* revolutionary. The designed experience is what delights people.
But basically, Microsoft is technology company, and has been so successful that the culture has never had to embrace design in order to survive. By contrast, Apple's very existence relies on design. Otherwise a Mac is just a PC with a one button mouse.
The face of computing is changing and to ignore people like Scoble and companies like Apple and Google is to be stupid. Agree or Disagree but be thankful for this sort of information from someone who has proved himself to be a trustworthy and unbiased source of information. Thanks Robert.
Shaun McDonnell
What Microsoft considers very talented people is just plain wrong. Why do you think the company has shot downhill 1000% since 1995. The only person that was truly talented there was Bill and he's on his way out. The rest are borg drones.
How can somebody like Rory be considered talented for example?
I don't want to contribute to his situation from last week, so anybody reading through, please don't tell him. I am just using that as an example.
The people that are the most talented it would seem are the ones that aren't popularized.
Would Scoble have know Larry Page and Sergey Brin were the next Bill Gates when they were in their rented garage and to try to hire them?
No, of course not, and that's why MS has no clue at all.
Really good developers would most likely not choose a lowly 1-800 flowers clone as an ambitious project. I'm sorry, they just wouldn't. That's lowly with a capital L as far as software is concerned.
therebeautiful design suck big time from the enduser experience perspective, IMHO.
Microsoft among other things helped them gain their credibility and authority more than they contributed to Microsoft.
I don't believe software developers made this. Not at all.
Even if they did work for Microsoft.
If I would put it harshly, it sucks like Hallmark Greeting Cards suck. A lot of people still use them, but not people who have taste. And that has nothing to do with who is geeky and who isn't.
All of the attempts of Apple to be 'emotional experiences' gave way to more smooth minimal design in time. Fruity iMacs, gone. Pinstripe, gone.
The mac interface and mac hardware is becoming more and more minimal, with the 'emotional' aspects of it disappearing over time, because people realize its bad taste.
I really think that Microsoft does need to improve a lot of things in their design, but if they go for all the gimmicky things that Apple started with and then dropped, they'll be learning the wrong thing about Apple's story.
Robert, I'm confused. I thought your iPhone was a birthday gift to Maryam :-) Have you purchased another one?
one thing that does frustrate me is that people think the only talent exists in Redmond. There is plenty across the world of Microosft and their voices need to be heard and their stories told. it's not all about cool products but also about how people use existing products in cool ways. Like the Silverlight stuff with Skinkers this week. UK company working with MSR UK doing very cool stuff.
We're a platform company after all and though http://www.microsoft.com/design/Voices/Master.aspx is cool, it needs an update
Listening to designers doesn't necessarily mean doing whatever they propose. Jobs is not just passionate about design, he spends a good chunk of his time every week reviewing design. He looks at U-I design, industrial design, and marketing design. The market appeal of Apple products depend on all three. Design isn't decoration that gets sprinkled onto a product. It's in the DNA. Of the designs that are presented to Steve Jobs, for example, how many does he bless and how many does he reject? Anybody know the ratio? (I suspect that's one of Apple's closely-guarded trade secrets.)
Thanks, Robert for opening this topic. Sadly, design remains a mysterious and suspect discipline for many folks who are responsible for making decisions about tech projects. We're all the poorer for that.
People are so retarded. I did not realize how much until now.
Anybody that pays 10 dollars to briefly look at bad clip art of flowers that they were spam mailed is beyond salvation.
No Scoble, if it were that easy, we wouldn't be building hot new tech. Do you realize how much revenue a site like friendster or myspace could make if they simply charged ONE DOLLAR???
So why don't they?
Do you think the owners of those websites would simply turn down the money?
Different audience, and from what I can tell They're Beautiful doesn't seem to be advertised in Korean.
They also do not have a bank of women showing themselves off in pictures to salivating men, ready to do anything to get their attention.
I still can't stand Vista though. I'm very happy running XP with the Zune theme.
The virtual goods business model is in it's infancy...kind of like the days of prodigy and compuserve.
One of your best posts, Robert. Curious, who would you say is the highest ranking "emotional architect" at Microsoft?
If you're hesitant to name names, how many "EAs" you think have reached the upper echelons are your alma mater?
thanks.
She was the one behind Office's new ribbon interface.
Hello?
Virtual goods have been SELLING on the internet for 15 years now. Software, games, music, ebooks, stock photos being sold online is virtual goods has been going on for years.
I think you explicitly mean virtual clipart gifts, specifically from men to women. That in itself is not new as dating sites have been doing that for years as well.
While it is true that Koreans have been conditioned to want and pay for this, it is less true in our market. At the very least you need a large pool of hot women in order to make that work. Not politically correct, but true.
it's bad design the other way: prettiness is all that matters, functionality is irrelevant. put on your calendar to post about jacksonfish a year from now, i bet at least one of them has gone back to the mothership by then.
I've been a Nokia user(never an employee, and probably never after this post.. :) ) ever since their first "car phones". Their initial UI was fantastic--simple, fast, and got the job done. I've stuck with them since because they have still managed to keep the UI better then the atrocious UIs of their competitors. Even so, "better than horrible" does not equate "good".
Now that the iPhone is out, Nokia has an example of the kind of phone I know many of their designers have been pushing for for years--apps that are integrated, simple, and coherent. Unfortunately I suspect that what the managers will take away from the iPhone will be no more than "we need to add transparency and more animations!" and more of Nokia's actually fantastic human resources will head off to jobs elsewhere.
Before cannonizing Apple and Nintendo, let's not forget their huge design mistakes:
Apple: Flower-Power and Tie-Dye iMacs.
Apple: Lamp Shade iMacs.
Nintendo: Lunchbox GameCube
Apple: QuickTime player, period (both Mac and Windows versions).
Apple: iTunes UI
All companies have hits and misses.
Scoble, you ignored Gary Russo's comments regarding Microsoft's streaming of Live Earth (why, because it goes against your theory that Microsoft can do no right)?
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9740511-7.html...
It's nice to see this blog covering design.
http://www.theyrebeautiful.com needs to adjust the homepage layout for certain browser with installed toolbars. You can't click the button if the Grass Footer id="footer" is covering those 2 buttons where the id="page_buttons" is.
I am trying to encourage Wikis to put more efforts on the Beauty side of the equation. We'll see more on our "Beauty & the Beast of Wiki - Usability vs Functionality".
It is classical innovation and new ventures thinking to separate the culture of a new venture from the "going down the cost curve" mainstream thinking of the parent.
A creative culture is needed for the new projects. Xbox has been a happy accident for Microsoft and they still don't realise this to the full extent. One of the key reasons it is successful is that it is a separate, physical and different culture from the main MS crew.
Though I don't think Adobe will be too happy about that.
They probably won't bother/don't know how to do it right to begin with, but if the designer can show how the changed UI helps the user they'll be happy to implement it if they can.
If the designer can't show how the changes help the user then why should the developer bother? (Before anyone mentions a consistant company look/feel that [should] help the user)
However, there are always situations where for one reason or another a UI improvement can't be used for some platform, time or cost constraint.
Also, Bess: we are mowing the grass real soon now!
..And they're also supported by them, too :D