At this week’s PDC, one of the major messages that I want to convey is the importance of the user experience in the design and development of modern applications.  As the Web and the Internet have made great strides in connectivity and communication, and Web services promise to make further advances, an area that will be of special importance is the way in which users directly experience applications of all sorts.

I’m sure that you have seen lots of applications that have dull, uninspired look and feel.  Sometimes, these apps can be quite powerful, as attractiveness is absolutely not the sole measure of an app’s usefulness.  However, just as wide-screen, high-color HDTV movies carry a lot more visual impact than B&W TV shows of the past, exciting, compelling user experience in an app can really enhance the user’s interaction with the application, both in terms of excitement and ease of use.

Historically, the reason for bad UI was based in the technology – DOS and early technologies like Visual Basic 1.0 really didn’t have much in the way of UI smarts. But today, with the wealth of platform technologies, the challenge is no longer about the low-level platform and tooling. Today it’s about creating a cultural shift to make user experience matter, and about bringing user experience experts into the application lifecycle.

At the PDC 2005, Microsoft is showing tools, the Expression family of products, that help make technologies such as the Windows Presentation Foundation simpler to use. We’re also making it simpler than ever for even the most ad-hoc of applications to create great-looking user experiences. Between these two advances, it’s time for us to help push forward a new era in improved user experiences – applications that are not just easier to use, but more fun to use.

The unveiling of a broader UX strategy:

·         User Experience is at the center. At PDC Microsoft is showing how it is working with partners to on a strategy around superior user experience (UX) to advance business opportunity, organizational productivity and customer retention through powerful platform and tooling technologies that advance (UX) within, home-grown or packaged, line of business and end user applications on the ubiquitous Web and client devices. 

·         Focus on developers and designers working together. Microsoft is tackling the foremost barrier, development complexity, bridging the gap between creative designers and development teams, so that rich user experiences can be achieved at reduced cost which in turn optimizes business opportunity.

·         Make great UX easy to create. Software will always be subject to trade-offs around time, scope and quality – however by reducing software development complexity associated with UX, we hope to ensure that the presentation layer of applications will not be compromised making UX a foremost consideration within both homegrown or packaged line of business (LOB) enterprise and end-user applications, at significant benefit to organizational and end-user productivity.

·         Need a solid platform on which to build. Microsoft offers a holistic application development model that incrementally increases UX on the Web and on the client with “Atlas” and the Windows Presentation Foundation, and specific tooling (see news section) that notably bridges the gap between developers and designers.

With all of this, our goal is to re-define what is considered “good enough” in user experience by substantially reducing the complexity involved in creating a really compelling application.  Please take a look at the technology previews of these technologies and let us know how we’re doing with them, and what we can do to help you create applications which will wow your end users!