There are a number of services that help people build apps for iPhone, Android and WP7. I originally checked these out so I could do a competitive analysis of the iPhone submission process without having to actually code anything. However, I recently...

Jakob Nielsen is a well-known guru in the usability world. He has done a lot to bring usability to the forefront of software engineering. In one of his alertboxes, he does a quick assessment of WP7. ---------------------------------- From: Jakob...

World Usability Day is just around the corner. The overall theme is "Communication" which is vitally important to making usable products. Microsoft participates in World Usability Day and hosts a number of different talks and activities. The three areas...

The excitement of Mix 2011 is over, but the excitement of what we learned lives on. Last year at Mix, we did a usability study of the Visual Studio Windows Phone tools. It was the first time we were allowed to show the tools to anyone in the public...

I reviewed my experience of making WP7 apps with AppMakr and I was pretty excited about the technology. However, it seems that their support for WP7 is sorely lacking. There is currently a showstopper bug that apps are getting rejected on. Many people...

A month or so ago, I was re-orged to the Windows Phone team. My main job in the Developer Division was to research the Mobile Phone Developer experience. I had worked pretty evenly with people in DevDiv and in WP, so I always thought my job could be done...

I recently recorded a video for Silverlight TV on Quick and Dirty Ux Testing. My goal was to give three techniques that anyone can use to easily, quickly and cheaply test their products. Silverlight TV Episode These techniques can be used for...

I'm a User Experience Researcher here at Microsoft. Been here since 1999 and I've worked on numerous products. Most of time has been in the developer division and learning all about developers. Currently, I am focused on Silverlight and Visual Studio...

Don Norman posted an article about the realities of design in industry and how going through the ideal process of doing research first, then going through ideation/prototyping/iteration is not necessarily optimal. Why it is not necessary to start...

Background on Personas I joined the Developer Division User Experience Group on January 13, 2003. At that time, the three, now famous Mort, Elvis and Einstein, personas had just been developed by the team. I benefited from the wealth of research...