On Monday we released a minor upgrade to Eye on Earth . The site now supports Birds Eye view so you can deep dive into the map. It also uses map controls similar to those in Silverlight Bing Maps which provide automatic map mode changes, zooming to predefined...

Whilst working on a proof of concept, we came up with an idea for an interesting menu in the form of an arc around a company logo at the top-left corner of the UI: These icons formed a fish eye effect when the mouse moved over them and could be dragged...

Almost all of my projects involve the designer/developer workflow to a certain degree (even if I end up doing both roles!) and the UK Solutions Delivery team has spent a number of years developing best practice for this style of work. There’s a range...

Not only did the ash cloud seriously impact my weekend (26 hour commute back from Zurich), the change in air quality seems to have been noticed by Eye on Earth . Coincidence? Not sure.. It’s also pretty cool how much user feedback we’ve had since going...

I was asked to speak at the University of Bath a few weeks ago about my experience of how Microsoft Consulting Services approaches software engineering. It hasn’t been that long since I finished my degree but when talking to my old lecturer I realised...

I read this article today by Rob Enderle from technewsworld.com which is quite interesting… It describes how he thinks Google is starting to act how Microsoft used to and Microsoft is starting to act like Apple. http://www.technewsworld.com/story/69374...

I’ve just signed up to raise money for Sport Relief in the UK just be searching with Bing.com (which of course I do anyway..) Give it a try – it’s for a good cause :-)

I’m often asked why Bing bothers with a mapping tool when Google’s is so good. Don’t get me wrong – I downloaded Google Earth when it came out and had a lot of fun flying around the world. As a day-to-day tool though (or even just for fun) I’ve been a...

I’ve been working on a project in conjunction with the European Environment Agency for the past six months. It was launched on Tuesday during PDC and has already received great feedback from around the Internet. Eye On Earth combines the power of Microsoft...

Windows 7 has finally arrived! I’ve been using it since the start of the year and it’s an amazing product. I quite liked Vista but this is definitely an improvement – it’s more user friendly, innovative, better value for money etc. For more information...

Project Natal is a hardware add-on for the Xbox 360. Using three cameras and an advanced microphone, it allows gamers to use their own bodies as the controller. This is amazing and I want one!! The demos on the official site ( http://www.xbox.com/en-US...

I've just been shown a really cool video from TED demoing a 'sixth sense' device. The prototype uses a projector to draw a UI on any surface (e.g. a wall, paper, even a hand) and then a camera recognises the interaction with that surface. It can even...

Blacklight is a Codeplex project created by my colleague Martin Grayson. It is an open source repository for Silverlight and WPF controls. Version 3.0 has recently been launched bringing an impressive collection of controls and styles. A showcase demonstrates...

This is some really cool software from Microsoft Research. Songsmith lets users sing into their computers and a music track will be created automatically. You can choose the genres, tempo, instruments etc. A great example of some clever logic with a great...

At the beginning of December, the Legal Sector Alliance held an event in London to encourage companies in the legal sector to join together and tackle climate change. Their key note was given by HRH Prince of Wales and several climate aware companies...

On my way back from a training course in Seattle I decided to watch a video of a presentation from the Professional Developer Conference on developing for Microsoft Surface. As a UX person with a huge interest in HCI, the form factor of Surface really...

Hello and welcome to my blog! I work as a User Experience Developer for Microsoft Consulting Services, UK. I recently joined Microsoft on their graduate scheme after graduating from the University of Bath last June. I'd worked at Microsoft for 14 months...