It was just 5 months ago we shipped Silverlight 3. Last week at PDC, Silverlight 4 Beta was introduced. The rapid release cycle allows the team to act quickly based on developers feedback and to keep pushing Silverlight to be the best platform for delivering rich interactive and media content on the web. In Silverlight 4 Beta, I see more end-user features that were only available to client applications before. For example, Silverlight 4 supports right-click context menu, drag-drop from desktop to Silverlight app, and multi-level redo and undo. This allows users to transfer their knowledge of using client applications to the web. Device access support such as WebCam support will bring more richness to web applications. For instance, instead of sharing something with your friends on the web through a text email, you can send a video clip. The possibilities are endless.
My colleague Joey DeVilla has a nice post on the Developer’s blog on Silverlight 4 features and resources. The best way to get an overview of Silverlight 4 is to watch Karen Corby’s PDC talk “Microsoft Silverlight 4 Overview.” Karen has many interesting demos in her talk to showcase Silverlight 4 features that you can download and play with from her blog. To get more details of a specific area of Silverlight 4, you can watch one of these PDC Silverlight sessions.
At PDC’s keynote yesterday, the general availability of Office 2010 Beta was announced. Everyone can try out this Beta for free. This is a comprehensive Beta set which not only includes Office the software but also Office Web Apps and Office Mobile. Even the companion Office website had a brand new design. Let me take you on a little tour to experience Office 2010 Beta.
A Clean Design for Office Online Website
I’m quite impressed by the visual design of this version of Office products. It’s lightweight, organic, and full of energy. The brand identity connects well among the Office online website, Office web apps and Office software. For example, below is the new design for the Office online site. It integrates Bing search throughout the site, there’s much less information presented on each page, and a clearer and more consistent layout. The old Office online site has a more corporate and product centric feel, so users may miss all the great resources presented on the site such as images and templates. The new design brings out these resources and makes a directly connection to Office Labs, which allows Office users to try additional innovative tools to increase their productivity.
More Friendly Splash Screen
Although splash screen is just a small component of any software design, it’s the first impression the software gives to user. I like how a user can close any Office 2010 software during splash screen rather than waiting for a complete start. The animation used in the splash screen is quite attractive which gives the perception of fast movement and energy. Perception is reality, so it’s important to make users feel the software is not idling but rather actively working. On Office 2010 splash screens, there are text indications to show users what the software is doing to start up.
More Usage of Ribbon UI
Ribbon UI is widely used in Office 2010 to provide a consistent UI structure for users. My favorite Ribbon addition is in Outlook. There’s a feature called “Quick Steps.” I can add my own quick step according to my email behaviors. For example, I like to archive important Inbox mails to a local mail folder. Before I had to manually drag one or more mails to the archive folder, which takes time especially if have lots of folders in the folder hierarchy. In Outlook 2010, I set couple of quick steps so that after reading Inbox mails, I just need to click on a quick step, the mail(s) will go to the folder I want. It’s a big time saver.
Another feature that was nicely designed in Outlook was called “Social Connector.” Check out a demo on it here.
Move Seamlessly Between Online and Offline
This is something a lot of people have been waiting for – Office on the web. You want to edit your document anytime, anywhere, and be able to share with whoever you what. In Office 2010, it’s very easy to create a document on your computer and then save it to a shared location on the web. Here’s an example.
I created a PowerPoint presentation called “Experience Office 2010 Beta.” I can save a local copy but I really want to share it with the public. So, I click on “File” button which takes me to the backstage of this file. I can save the file directly to my SkyDrive from PowerPoint 2010 (below left) rather than going online and uploading the file. Later on, I can access the file on my SkyDrive anywhere with internet access (below right). I can easily share the file as a link in an email or embed it on a webpage.
If I click to view the file in browser, I can see my file as a slideshow (below left) or edit in the browser directly (below right). Notice in the Office Web App, the familiar Ribbon UI is still there. The “Open in PowerPoint” button is very obvious which allows me to edit the file back in PowerPoint if I want to access the full features in the client software.
The office team has embraced the Software + Service model and aim to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone, and browser. So, what are you still waiting for? Experience Office 2010 Beta Today!
Technorati Tags:
Office 2010,
UX
Yesterday I went to the research showcase at the UofT Computer Science department called “Research in Action (RIA).” It’s always an idea feast going to research open house, and there were lots of “delicious” projects served yesterday.
Professor Steve Easterbrook showcased a number of projects his undergraduate students worked on to explore how computer can support collaborative science. One of them is called “Breadcrumbs” which allows scientists to save and share graphs of related web pages when browsing for related work. Steve also spoke at last week’s World Usability Day event in Toronto where he talked about the role of software in understanding and responding to the threat of climate change. You can follow his group’s ongoing research on his blog.
I also got to try RearType during the tour (see the image on the right). It’s a text input system that allows you to type on the back of the device. “The aim is to ‘free up’ the front of the device, maximizing the use of a physical display, minimizing the need for an onscreen keyboard and resulting pixel occlusion, and providing a tactile and multi-finger method for text entry – with the potential for knowledge transfer from QWERTY.” I’ve been using my thumbs most of time now typing on a mobile keyboard. This design will allow me to use my all my fingers especially the non-thumb fingers. When using it, it actually feels like I’m playing an instrument like flute. :) This is a collaboration project between Microsoft and the university.
You can check out all the projects showcased yesterday at their website. Also, this is an annual event which you can go in-person next time.
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| Picture taken from A List Apart |
I came across a great article last week on A List Apart about explaining UX Research in plain English. For UX professionals, we are so used to speak terms like “Contextual Inquiry,” “Task Analysis,” “Paper Prototyping,” etc. They are terminologies that are not intuitive to our clients or people in other disciplines. Sometimes they may have an idea of what we mean but not really. The article gives a handy cheat sheet that we can explain these terms in plain English and establish a clear understanding between us and our clients. Moreover, it highlights the business value of the activity. For example:
Task analysis
What it is in plain English: Observing how people take part in an activity, and then examining what they are thinking and what they are doing as they complete each task, step by step.
Real-world example: A health-care company wants you to improve their claims-processing system. You observe their employees as they use the software to process claims. Then, you go through the process yourself, documenting each step required to fulfill every task. From that analysis, you make recommendations to streamline or improve the process.
Business value: By conducting a task analysis to break down how customers use the website or application, and then using that information for process improvement, you can increase the number of site transactions and create operational efficiencies that save money.
Task analysis provides input into: Personas, user flows, wireframes, navigation schema, the use case / requirements document, the content map, and the site map.
Happy World Usability Day, everyone! May all your design projects have the best usability! :-)
This year’s theme is “Designing a Sustainable World.” As the world is celebrating today, here are the events from Canada. I’ll be going to the Toronto chapter event and hope to see you there.
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Ottawa World Usability Day, Ottawa,17:30 Canada/Eastern (Thursday 12th of November 2009 05:30:00 PM)
CapCHI, Akendi and Macadamian Usability present an Ottawa World Usability event featuring local experts in the area of designing for a sustainable world. Keynote presentation by David Berman. Snacks and drinks will be provided. A trip to a local pub will follow the event.
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Design@IBM: Usability Challenges of Building Smarter Cities, Toronto, 12:00 Etc/GMT-5 (Thursday 12th of November 2009 12:00:00 PM)
Join us for a webcast, hosted by Karel Vredenburg (IBM User Experience Design Program Director), in celebration of World Usability Day's theme of "Designing for Sustainability". John C. Thomas (IBM Research Scientist) will present "The Usability Challenges of Building Smarter Cities".
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Sunup to Sundown Design Slam, Vancouver, 08:00 US/Pacific (Thursday 12th of November 2009 11:00:00 AM) Sunup to sundown design slam where a group of Vancouver UX professionals will team up with an urban community garden to help them do more of the good work they do.
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World Usability Day in Kelowna - Website Usability 101, Kelowna, BC, 11:00 Canada/Pacific (Thursday 12th of November 2009 02:00:00 PM)
Is your website realizing its potential? How do you know? Enquiro is hosting a website usability clinic for local Kelowna businesses.
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Halifax Ergonomics Interest Group WUD Meeting, Halifax, NS, 17:00 Canada/Atlantic (Thursday 12th of November 2009 04:00:00 PM)
The Halifax Ergonomics Interest Group - special WUD meeting. Presentations, from ~5:10 pm - 6:10 pm to be followed by a networking / social session will follow with drinks and snack provided.
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Free Expert Reviews of Customer Experience!, Ottawa, 09:00 Canada/Eastern (Thursday 12th of November 2009 09:00:00 AM)
Neo Insight offer FREE, confidential 1-hour expert Customer Experience reviews on World Usability Day - Nov 12th
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Usable Climate Science , Toronto, 19:00 US/Eastern (Thursday 12th of November 2009 07:00:00 PM)
Presentation by Steve Easterbrook. How do we make climate science usable? Unless we do this, journalists, politicians and the public will be unable to judge whether proposed policy solutions are viable, and unable to distinguish sound science from misinformation. I will illustrate the talk with some suggestions of how we might meet this goal.
During this year’s college tour, our chief Research and Strategy Office, Craig Mundie, demonstrated how technology can help solve the world’s toughest problems. One of the demos is on Natural User Interface (NUI) in a search scenario (see the video below). I was very excited to see the demo because it combined a number of NUI elements such as gesture, speech, and even eye-tracking. If the future allows users to interact with technology in a number of ways (i.e. various input methods), then it’s really interesting to find out how users will accomplish their tasks at hands with a combination of these inputs. For example, as I’m writing this blog post with keyboard, I can say “Computer, search ‘Craig Mundie.” Or, if I want to send this demo link to a friend, I can say “Computer, create an email with XX link embedded to Joe.” I don’t need to stop writing and go to a search browser or an email client to do another task then come back. This speech interaction is independent of my writing flow and and allows me to multi-task. I would really like that!
I came across FEED this morning, which is the annual report of the study Razorfish conducts on customer behaviors. The report this year focuses on understanding how digital is changing the way that consumers interact with brands. This is what they found out:
[Digital] Experience matters. A lot. So much so that experiences are becoming the new advertising or marketing. And these experiences are having an inordinate amount of impact on how consumers perceive a brand and ultimately purchase products. Moreover, we also found that consumers are actively engaged with brands across the entire digital spectrum. Consumers may be in control but so are brands which are so deeply embedded in the culture that consumers can’t imagine not making them a part of their world — on Facebook, Twitter or even their own blogs.
Although this is a marketing report, it’s an interesting read, a good example of a report design, and valuable information for UX professionals to know as well. I was impressed by how connected consumers are online and how much they are willing to follow a product/brand in their own social networking spaces (e.g. follow a product on Twitter and friend a product on Facebook). As UX Designers, we know the product experience matters. As the definition of “product experience” gets broader, part of the experience is how the product is perceived. It starts long before users use your products. For example, users want to interact with your brand through rich media and listen to what others are saying about your products especially from the people they trust. It’s a great opportunity where we can work with marketers to understand consumers’ behaviors (i.e. patterns, motivations, etc.), create digital experiences that engage them and get the best Return on Experience (ROE).
As the World is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall today, a digital project is also underway to remember the historical moment. Thousands of pictures are posted by people in the community to create their impression of the fall of the wall. Check out the photo mosaic in Silverlight Deepzoom.
With the announcement of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 availability couple of weeks ago, you probably notice the different look on MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network). Although the site’s main audience has been developers, recently I’ve found more designers are visiting the site to get knowledge on Silverlight, WPF, Windows 7, and other UX platform and technologies.
First, we have a new logo for MSDN, which is called the Network Wave. I like the new logo design because it captures the movement of different pieces of developer knowledge coming together. :) It’s also an organic design that works well with the .NET 4, VS 2010, and Silverlight logos. It’s a cohesive branding for our development family.
Besides the new logo and color theme of the site, the re-design is trying to address the following top use scenarios and improve the overall user experience:
- Help users quickly solve their technical questions or find reference documentations
- Connect and engage users on the site who have similar technical interests and connect MSDN users with product teams
- Get users to the downloads they need fast
- Connect users to the product so that they can easily provide feedback, get deep technical information about the product, and so on
- Keep users updated with new technology information and enhance their learning experience
For example, to help users quickly find technical reference, the new design improved discoverability by providing guidance for new developers and MSDN first-time visitors. See the diagram below.
As the weeks to come, more improvements will be visible on the Canadian localized version of MSDN. Make sure you check out the new MSDN site and tell us what you think!
Technorati Tags:
MSDN,
MSDN redesign
Many details surrounding Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 were announced at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas this week. One of Sharepoint2010’s top investment is on User Experience. It utilizes the Ribbiob UI which allows users to easily add, modify and interact with content on the site. In addition, it ships with a true multi-lingual user interface. Once you have the language packs installed and you set the appropriate languages on the sites, end users will be able to interact with SharePoint in the language of their choice. Also, there’s exciting investments in mobile devices. Check out Steve Ballmer’s keynote at the Sharepoint conference.
This Monday, at the Microsoft Mississauga office you can learn about SharePoint 2010 at the inaugural meeting of the Mississauga SharePoint User Group. Rob Windsor from ObjectSharp will take you through what’s new in SharePoint 2010. The session will provide an overview of the product with a particular focus on what’s new for developers. You will learn about the new designers, explorers and templates and overall developer experience for SharePoint 2010. Along the way you’ll see several of the enhancements to the end-user experience including the ribbon, in-place editing, and the new page and dialog interface model.
To register for the event, please go to https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=142514.
Technorati Tags:
Sharepoint 2010
Today is the day! As I’m waking up on the west cost this morning, the celebration of the worldwide availability of Windows 7 has long started from Tokyo, Munich, London, Beijing, Paris, Dubai, New York, and our own Toronto office. I thought to gather some Windows 7 launch related facts and resources below for you on this post.
- In celebration of Windows 7, more than 800,000 people will join in the celebration by gathering at house parties to share their enthusiasm for Windows 7 with family and friends.
- Starting today, Windows 7 and Windows 7 PCs are available in more than 45,000 retail stores around the globe, including our first-ever Microsoft-branded retail store in Scottsdale, Arizona. This Microsoft Store and the corresponding online store at http://microsoftstore.com will offer PCs, accessories, and third-party software directly to consumers
- Windows 7 breaks Amazon UK pre-order volume record, ousts Harry Potter
- You can follow the Canadian Windows 7 conversation on twitter by searching for hashtag #cdnwin7.
- Today, the Channel 9 Team launched a new Online Windows 7 learning course.
- If you are developing for Windows 7, you may want to check out the Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers. It includes 14 different modules, with a total of 32 different labs.
- Don’t forget that the official Windows UX Interaction Guidelines is your friend of building high quality and consist user experience for Windows-based applications.
Go Windows 7!
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What a great way to come back from my vacation other than celebrating Windows 7 releasing tomorrow! Our company CEO Steve Ballmer is in town and on tonight’s episode of CBC’s news show The Hour, Steve will have an one-on-one conversation with George. Should be a great interview and a chance to get to know this visionary leader behind Microsoft.
The Hour airs on CBC tonight at 11 p.m. Eastern.
In Part I of the Explore Design post, I introduced the student lounge we are presenting this year. In this post, I’ll introduce you the presentations from Microsoft and our partners to watch out at the conference. It’s less than two weeks away!
Two Keynotes
Oct. 14 @ 11:00am: Experience Design by Sara Diamond
Apple! BMW! Umbra! These brands offer a seamless and pleasurable adventure with their products. The method is ‘experience design’, a process that starts with an understanding of who you, the user of a product is, what your needs and culture is, and then creates a product that not only meets but exceeds your expectations. This talk traces the shift towards product as experience in the digital century, explores examples of tools and interactions used to facilitate experience design in the design process.
Sara Diamond is the President of the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Canada's foremost university of art and design. She holds degrees from Canada and the United Kingdom in social history, communications, digital media theory and computer science. She is currently a member of the Ontario Ministry of Culture's Minister's Advisory Council on Arts & Culture, the Board of Directors of the Toronto Arts Council Foundation and of ORANO, Ontario's high speed network. She is a founding member of CONCERT and the Chair of the OMDC funded Mobile Experience Innovation Centre. She has received numerous research awards for her work in visualization, mobile content design, wearable technologies and collaborative tools. She is a visualization software researcher and developer www.codezebra,net <http://www.codezebra,net/> . Diamond created and was Editor-in-Chief of www.horizonzero.ca <http://www.horizonzero.ca/> , an on-line showcase for new media art and design, in collaboration with Heritage Canada. Diamond participates in peer review publication and diverse editorial boards such as Leonardo on-line and Convergence. She provides media consulting to Heritage Canada, SSHRC, CFI, Industry
Canada, CHRC and DFAIT, as well as international governments, institutions and agencies as diverse as China, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Finland, Australia, Brazil and the USA.
Prior to her presidency at OCAD Diamond was the Director of Research for the prestigious Banff Centre. She created the renowned Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) in 1995 and led it until coming to Toronto in 2005. Diamond developed international summits and business development workshops and accelerators that explored the near future of new media. She built alliances between artists, designers, architects, scientists, social scientists, and international and Canadian businesses. Diamond taught at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, The California Institute for the Arts and remains Adjunct Professor, University of California, Los Angeles in the Design/Media Department. In 2007 she was named one of Canada's fifty most significant artists as part of the Canada Council's fiftieth anniversary celebration. Her work resides in collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, where she was honored with a retrospective in 1992 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Oct. 15 10:00am: User experience: a part of everyday life by James Horgan
A discussion of some of the real world examples of good (and bad!) user experiences. Learn how user experience design is part of today's software development and the various techniques and tools used to create an original and useful interactive product. Find out how Infusion is working with Microsoft to create exciting new paradigms in gestural computing.
James Horgan is a Masters graduate with distinction in Interactive Design from Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, London, UK ‐ one of the world's leading design colleges. A product designer and information architect for some of Europe's top technology companies in the fields of software, finance and education he has also worked for recognized North American brands including Pfizer, Microsoft and Ford, and has won two design awards for his work. Currently he is the User Experience Director for Infusion Development, working on creating innovative interactive solutions for both Microsoft Surface (he helped design and develop Infusion's first Microsoft Partner application) , and creating new applications designs for international clients. He holds several interactive design patents and copyrights.
Seminar speakers:
Oct. 14 @ 1:00pm: Bing for Today by Stacey Jarvis
Do you Bing? Well if you haven’t tried it – you are behind the times. Stacey will take you through an in-depth look at Search – past & present – and the cool new search user experience recently released on Bing, including the latest in 3D maps imagery. Plus, find out how you can incorporate Bing, or Bing maps directly into your web design.
With over thirteen years experience in search marketing, Stacey Jarvis is no stranger to Search. She joined Microsoft Canada in 2007 as a member of the launch team for adCenter in Canada and for the past three years, has been working with the Search team at Microsoft. In her current role, Stacey oversees the all-up Microsoft search business in the Canadian market which includes product development, marketing strategy, competitive analysis and consumer research.
Prior to Microsoft, Stacey worked with global agencies Wunderman and Lowe Worldwide with a focus in online media, SEO, SEM and direct and interactive relationship marketing.
Oct. 15 @ 1:00pm: What makes a game fun? A good story and a good design. By Christian Beauclair
Have you ever thought you could write the next big game title for a console? Or thought you could have done a better job at a console hit. Are you considering a job in making games? This session is for you. We will look at what it takes to design a compelling game and you will be surprise by the results. You’ll also see XNA 3.1 in action. A platform to design your own game in the comfort of your home for a PC or an Xbox 360. Come experience a little bit of the world of game designing with us.
Christian Beauclair is a senior Developer Advisor at Microsoft Canada. He's been with Microsoft for over 15 years in three main roles. He's been a consultant with lots of experience in the public sector, working with large departments like Correctional Service Canada, Revenue Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs on large scale software development projects and infrastructure deployments. In sales, he was a Technical Specialists working closely with customers to help them achieve their business goals by helping identify the right solutions. In this capacity he's worked more than 3 years on the Public Safety portfolio.
Now as a developer advisor he shares his passion for software development and its different facet with the Canadian ICT community. He has coded in Modula-2, xBase, VB, VB.NET and now C#. His passion also extends to games and various collectibles. He was also one of the major contributors to the creation of the Ottawa .NET user community and still sits on its steering committee.
He holds a Public Executive Program degree from Queen's University and a collegiate diploma from Ahuntsic College in Montreal. He's spoken at many conferences, like Comdex and MIGS and won Consultant of the year and best worldwide Developer Advisor.
Crosspost from Developer Connections blog…
What is WebsiteSpark?
If you run or work at a small web design or development firm, WebsiteSpark might be for you! WebsiteSpark is Microsoft’s new global program who goal is to help small web companies succeed.
What do you get with WebsiteSpark? I put together a little graphic that explains it pretty quickly:
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Visibility: By being showcased in the WebsiteSpark marketplace as well as through opportunities creating through The Empire’s marketing and business networking programs.
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Support: You’ll get hooked up with an entire ecosystem of Microsoft support, network and hosting partners, and web developers and designers so you have a wide range of technical and business resources.
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Tools: Full-on access to full versions of current Microsoft web tools and technologies, such as the goodies listed below:
| What You Get | What It Is |
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| Silverlight For building rich internet applications that can do multimedia, access data from the web and can also be run on the desktop. |
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| Expression A suite of tools for building websites, user interfaces for Silverlight and desktop applications, making web and application graphics, encoding video and building prototype applications in a hurry. You get: - 1 user licence for Expression Studio - Up to 2 user licences for Expression Web
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| SQL Server Web Edition Microsoft’s database platform for data needs of all sizes, from the simplest web form to full-on enterprise applications. You get a 4-processor licence of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition.
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| Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2 when it becomes available) A server that’s both powerful and easy to maintain, featuring the IIS 7 web server and the Web Platform Installer, which makes it easy to install and upgrade popular web applications. You get a 4-processor licence of Windows Server 2008 (and for 2008 R2 when it comes out).
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| Visual Studio Professional The IDE (integrated development environment) that has it all. You get up to 3 user licences of Visual Studio Pro. |
Are You Eligible to Join WebsiteSpark? 
If you can answer “yes” to the two questions below, you are!
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Is your company a professional service firm whose primary business is providing Web development and design services for its clients?
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Does your company have 10 or fewer people, including owners and employees?
Once you join WebsiteSpark, there’s a simple obligation: in order to continue participating in WebsiteSpark, you must deploy a new public, internet-accessible website developed using the tools and tech given to you by WebsiteSpark within 6 months of joining.
You can stay in WebsiteSpark for up to 3 years. On the first and second anniversary of your initial enrollment, you must update it – that is, confirm your company hasn’t gone public or its ownership hasn't changed.
I Don’t Have a Fee-For-Service Web Shop, I Have a Startup. Can I Get in on This?
No, but we have a program for you – it’s called BizSpark.
I’m a Student and Have Limited Money, and It’s for Books and Beer. Can I Get in on This?
Dude, we have something just for you! It’s called DreamSpark.
How Do You Find Out More?
The details about the program are at the WebsiteSpark site. Check it out, and if it’s right for you, sign up!
[This article also appears in Joey’s personal tech blog, Global Nerdy.]
Creating a button is the “Hello World” example of learning Blend. In this tutorial, I’ll show to how to create a reusable glossy button with Expression Blend 3. The concepts I’ll be covering are:
- using gradient brush to create glossy effect
- turning graphics into a control
- editing a button control template
- applying drop effects to an object
- editing visual states and transition between states
Enjoy!
You can also download the video here.
