In attempt to visualize a more casual approach to the future of ‘technology’ here are a couple of concept videos recently shown at CHI2009 in the Concept Video segment. These pieces were directed and driven by Microsoft Surface’s own August de los Reyes and Dane Storrusten with the unique styling’s of...

I’d like to propose an alternative to typical, preliminary design exploration techniques such as wire-framing and interactive prototyping – when designing new Microsoft Surface experiences. In 5 years of brainstorming, visualizing, and creating Microsoft Surface experiences as a designer; I have definitely...

I was in the middle of an interview for a position with a new Microsoft product called Surface when a manager asked me why I wanted to join the team as a user researcher. I told him that it has been a while since I experienced that infrequent physiological reaction (sitting up straight, widening of the...

I just received this email from Dennis Wixon down at UX Week. So after a somewhat harrowing evening, the “Challenge Behind Emotional Innovation ” at UX Week was a success! I have some video of my presentation that I’ll be posting shortly (Thanks Chris), but for now here are some great photos from...

Dennis Wixon , our user research manager in Microsoft Surface, is in San Francisco for UX Week 2008. He's at the Palace Hotel getting ready to talk to some user experience professionals tomorrow. UX Week is a conference that caters to the user experience audience and lets attendees and speakers gather...

A few of us will be at MIX08 in Vegas next month. August and Daniel from the UX team will be participating in some cool sessions in the UX track (you can search for them by name here to find those sessions). Also, Tasneem and I from the SDK team will be hanging out in the "sandbox" area with demo tables...

Hello. My name is Ali Vassigh and I manage Surface's User Experience team. My team of designers and writers are responsible for defining and creating your experience with all the aspects of Surface you can see, hear, touch, and generally interact with as a consumer. From the physical form and materials...