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Feedback Requested: Visual Studio 2005's Look and Feel

Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2006 2:24 PM by aaronbrethorst
As you may be able to discern from the contents of this weblog, I'm the Program Manager who is responsible for a lot of the overall look-and-feel of the Visual Studio product line. Specifically, I drive User Experience, Shell UI, and Accessibility across Read More...
29 Comments

Feedback Requested: Visual Studio 2005 Tab Design Iteration 2

Posted Wednesday, March 16, 2005 3:41 PM by aaronbrethorst
I want to thank everyone for all of the terrific feedback we received on our first pair of tool window tab designs for Visual Studio 2005. As of right now, we've gotten 124 comments, which is really outstanding! I've been working with our designer, Corrina, Read More...
58 Comments

Feedback Requested: Visual Studio 2005 Tab Design

Posted Thursday, March 03, 2005 1:45 PM by aaronbrethorst
//Update 2 I have posted a new set of designs for this at http://blogs.msdn.com/aaronbrethorst/archive/2005/03/16/397107.aspx . Please leave feedback on there. Thanks! :) //End:Update 2 //Update Corrina, the designer I have been working with on our new Read More...
155 Comments

Visual Studio Setup Changes

Posted Friday, August 06, 2004 6:40 PM by aaronbrethorst
If you've played with Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1, you've probably noticed a fair number of changes to the user interface of our setup application. It's become quite a bit easier to use, but we still have some changes planned for it. I was asked by Brian Read More...
34 Comments

Those Little '?' Buttons

Posted Thursday, July 22, 2004 11:19 AM by aaronbrethorst
Thanks to everyone who has logged bugs in the MSDN Product Feedback Center on inconsistencies in the use of dialog help buttons (those little '?' buttons) in Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1! I really appreciate all the help everyone has provided so far; you Read More...
0 Comments

I Need Your Help

Posted Saturday, July 17, 2004 11:31 PM by aaronbrethorst
Let me be totally straightforward and honest: I need your help. For those of you who are just tuning in, I am the Program Manager responsible for User Experience and User Interface Consistency for Visual Studio. Visual Studio 2005 is becoming consistent Read More...
13 Comments

Web Apps, Turbo C, and the like

Posted Tuesday, April 27, 2004 5:14 PM by aaronbrethorst
Let me tell a little story. Once upon a time (read: 2002-2003) while I was a senior in college I had to do an Advanced Project Laboratory , or, as the rest of the world refers to them, a senior design project. Somehow, I came upon the bright idea of porting Read More...
2 Comments

UI Consistency: Title Bar Help Buttons

Posted Monday, April 19, 2004 10:40 PM by aaronbrethorst
Have you ever noticed how Office 2003, and a wide variety of modal dialogs throughout Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server use that little question mark button in the title bar to launch their F1 help system? It's rather neat, unobtrusive, and it allows Read More...
3 Comments

Accessibility is not a feature

Posted Saturday, April 03, 2004 4:42 PM by aaronbrethorst
I moderated a talk yesterday on accessibility at Microsoft. I think it went over pretty well. In any case, one of the central points I made during the talk bears repeating in a more public forum. Accessibility is not a feature. “Whoa, wait, what?” Read More...
15 Comments

Tips on making a great-looking Windows XP app

Posted Thursday, March 18, 2004 5:54 PM by aaronbrethorst
I've been thinking a lot lately about some best practices in making sure applications look and feel like 'real' Windows XP apps. This is one of those areas that is, in my opinion, undervalued at times, despite the fact that it really can make a huge difference Read More...
10 Comments

VSIP Partner Summit

Posted Monday, February 23, 2004 9:37 PM by aaronbrethorst
I just got to have dinner with a ton of our VSIP Partners in Bellevue this evening. To everyone I talked to tonight: thanks a lot for telling me about what you've been up to, and for offering your thoughts on what we can do better (and for those of you Read More...
0 Comments

iTunes 4.2

Posted Sunday, February 08, 2004 7:23 PM by aaronbrethorst
Wow, Apple just completely redeemed themselves in my eyes with iTunes 4.2 on Windows. I've been trying to avoid reinstalling iTunes for a while now just because it makes me into a borderline psychotic to see a company that prides itself on design (Apple) Read More...
3 Comments

Design from the other side of the pond

Posted Friday, February 06, 2004 2:37 PM by aaronbrethorst
I got to hear a former Sony designer (also a veteran of Apple's HIG) talk at MS Research today. He had a lot of interesting things to say, and he had a few interesting anecdotes about verbal jousting with Ken Kutaragi, the guy who came up with PlayStation Read More...
0 Comments

Import/Export Settings in Whidbey PDC Build

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 9:55 PM by aaronbrethorst
I just ran across a blog entry from David Hunter , who has been playing around with the PDC build of Whidbey. David was trying to create a web service after reading about Indigo, but discovered that his New Project menu item had completely disappeared! Read More...
2 Comments
 
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