Microsoft Partner Labs

The New View of the Microsoft Partner Network Homepage

If you haven't heard the news (or seen the site) yet, the Microsoft Partner Program is evolving into the Microsoft Partner Network.  As part of this change, we've completed the overhaul of the Partner site. 

 If you've been following along (see details), and hopefully giving us feedback, we've been restructuring how the home page works--giving you easy access the important information you need.  With today's announcement, we reveal the rest of the face-lift, cleaning up the color palette, improving the usability and speeding up the performance time. 

 The change in this update include:

• Content Centered to fit screen resolution
• More white space
• New color palette
• World-wide reach

We would love to continue to get your feedback on our redesign.  We are going to continue to improve the site and we take all your comments into consideration as we make the changes.

 Make sure to stop by the site to see it for yourself.

 Now for the details!

Centering the Content

Moving the content away from the flush-left style that was in the old design, allows for better use of the available screen space. As you increase the window size, the content will move to best fit the window. You may notice that the low-profile background graphics appear differently for different screen sizes (you can also see this by changing the percent size of the window).

White space

Adding to the open and fresh look of the layout is the extensive use of the white-space.  As simple as it sounds, the white-space reduces the cluttered feeling on the page and increases the readability of the text on the page.  This will help you find the information you need quickly.

New Colors!

 Gone is the dated orange/red color palette.  The Greens and Yellows of the new Partner branding bring a fresh new look to the site.

 International Appeal

As part of the roll out, we've coordinated with all of the international teams to update the local Microsoft Partner Network sites as well.  Here is a detail from the Hong Kong Chinese language site as an example. 

Giving Partner Search a Facelift

In a previous post, we shared our thoughts on the Homepage updates that we are working on for June--now it's time to reveal the first images of the new direction we are taking search on the Partner Portal.  Again, we want your feedback so we can best meet your needs when you are looking for resources across the Microsoft Partner Program.

As you look through these design sketches, we would love to hear from you about:

• What kind of information are you looking for when you search on the Microsoft Partner Portal?
• Do you find the "Editor's Choice" information useful?
• Would you prefer results segmented by site (like in this sketch) or interlaced into one list?

The goal of this overhaul is to simplify the User Interface while increasing the sources of information that are available for you when you search for Partner related information.  This June, we will be federating the results of all the Partner training opportunities and all of the MS Partner Portal content.  When complete, you will have the option of seeing any of the available training that is available for the topic you are searching.

(click image below to see full-size)

Training Opportunities

To streamline your search for partner materials and training, we have included the entire Partner training library in the search index. Results from both indexes are displayed by default, but you will have the option to focus your search to either index individually.  The new interface is becoming your one-stop search location for the top Partner resources.

 Moving Editor's Choice

To give you more results on the screen without needing to scroll down the page, we are also planning on moving the Editor's Choice results from the current search page to the right-side of the page.  This will place these results in easy reach when you are searching, but will place the results of your search at the top of the page.

Condensed Result Details

The details for any results returned by your search, will be returned in a condensed format.  The description will include only the relevant sections of test where your search terms are included in the return.  This will help you scan the information quickly and pick the information that you need without scrolling down the page.  The entry will also include details on file size, file type, as well as the final URL.

Future Integration with other Indexes

The eventual plan is to integrate the search will even more indexes of partner-relevant information.  In this design sketch, we have included a potential scenario that would include MSDN, Technet and MS.com. 

Call for Input: A New Look for the Partner Portal Homepage

Work has started on a long-overdue overhaul of the Microsoft Partner Portal homepage and we are looking for input from the community as we finalize the design. 

Our objectives in this redesign include:

• Creating a cleaner, improved experience for partners.
• Making it easier to find the important information and tools to drive your business.
• Greater flexibility in the layout to support additional media types, like video and Silverlight presentations
• Content tailored to a visitor's needs (example: job role, company type, new users, etc)

This week we are posting out the early design images for you to review and comment on, while we complete the coding on a live prototype of the page.  We will have the prototype available for additional feedback next week. Beyond just your general comments, we are particularly interested in your answers to the following questions:

• What catches your eye first?
• What would be the most useful thing on this page, for you?
• What would you usually be trying to do, if you came to the Partner Portal homepage?
• Would this page enable you to get closer to that goal?
• Why, or why not?

Feel free to leave your feedback as comments to this post.  We'll be responding and capturing your input so we can continue to improve this design.

 Now, on to the show-n-tell.

Homepage Concept Sketch

This is the initial concept sketch for the new MSPP Portal design we are developing for release in June 2009. (Click to see full image)

Link list Detail

The link list area in the top-right of the home page is intended to give you easy access to the resources that are used most on the site.  The design also allows for easy contextual search directly from this area.

In-line Multimedia

The design includes the ability to view video and multimedia presentations directly from the homepage--placing the key highlights and information within easy reach. Videos can also be viewed in full-screen mode. 

Partner Resource Syndication

Important resources from other Microsoft Partner Program sites can be highlighted directly on the homepage.  As new relevant information is published the highlights will be available directly from this page.

There are more details to come as we get closer to June.  We are looking forward to your feedback!

Digital Forum Beta 2...now LIVE!

Digital Forum Beta 2 Release

I know there is no "beta 2" tag, but for those of you who've been visiting the site regularly you'll notice the updates.

 Here's what I am sending out to a few folks regarding these updates, hope you like the updates.  Kudos to Archetype for the great work.

*****

Digital Forum Beta 2 Release from Microsoft Partner Labs (www.digitalforumtv.com)

After launching Digital Forum Beta 1 at the Worldwide Partner Conference last July.   Microsoft Partner Labs is releasing Digital Forum Beta 2 on February 9th, 2009.  Through Digital Forum, Microsoft Partners can connect with a community of customers, peers, and the world, and share self-made videos of their innovative business solutions.  Anyone can engage in conversations around forum videos and can search, sort, comment, rate, bookmark, and embed video links.

All videos shown on the site are created by Microsoft Partners.  Microsoft partners’ businesses range from agencies, resellers, service providers, and independent software vendors that specialize in Microsoft technologies.

What’s new in Beta 2?

Microsoft Partner Labs has engaged with Archetype, a Microsoft Partner based in San Francisco that specializes in developing rich internet applications, to make improvements to the site’s backend and performance, as well as enhancements to the user interface to create a better experience.

What’s next?

Microsoft Partner Labs will release Digital Forum RTW in March 2009 prior to the MIX09 conference. The most notable new feature contained in this next release is a web-based video editor offered as part of the “Create” experience on the site.  Archetype has posted a preview of the Digital Forum “Create” experience to share how we plan to dramatically simplify the process of creating and sharing video content on the web.   

Site currently only compatible with Silverlight 2 Beta 2

Sorry everyone who is having problems accessing the site with the Silverlight 2 RTW plugin.

We are working on fixing this, but due to some complications the problems wont be resolved for 2 weeks.

Web 2.0

I am at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York, and I want to offer up two opportunities.

1 - I'll be showing off the site a lot while I am here, so anyone who posts a video in the next couple days has a good chance of some good visability.

2 - If any of you are at the conference and would like to meet to talk about the site, I'm willing to buy you a drink as long a you give me constructive feedback. Shoot me an email if you want to connect (kylecr@microsoft.com).

Sorry for going dark...turning the lights back on

August is my month for vacation, so I applogize for the lack of updates the last few weeks.

We haven't been completely unproductive though, we've been doing some bug bashing and working on the "Create" video editing tool (hope to go live with in a couple weeks).

 In the mean time I'd like to share a video I helped out on for Pointbridge out of Chicago.

 cheers,

 Kyle (kylecr@microsoft.com)

Getting Green on Digital Forum

Not only does Digital Forum take advantage of the efficient green hosting solutions available from Rackspace, but we now are showing off a great solution from a partner helping other companies improve thier "Carbon Footprint"

Check it out:

Unified Search prototype available in Silverlight Beta 2

10/14 UPDATE: With the release of Silverlight 2.0, all apps built with the beta require additional work to be compatible with the latest code base. For the time being, the Unified Search prototype will be unavailable for testing.

After 2 weeks of debugging and updating, I am excited to announce that we have successfully deployed the Unified Partner Search prototype in Silverlight 2, beta release 2.   It is no longer necessary to uninstall Silverlight before you try out the search prototype!

Other changes this release:

• Single Term search bug resolved -- Performing a single word search no longer yield 0 results.
• Updated current WCF service -- We did not create a Silver-light Enable WCF service (now available in Beta 2) and instead updated our previous service.

Take a few minutes and try out this prototype and share your feedback with us. We are particularly interested in how relevant your returned search results are.  If you test out your search terms, please include the following information: Search term, quality of results (5 high, 1 low) and if available, a sample URL of what you wanted to find.

We are also interested in any other feedback you want to share.

Unbroken Links

Update on our bug bash.  Deep linking and embedding are now resolving just fine.

WPC Preview getting rid of some moths

Posting sites early under the "preview" tag are great for getting people excited and generating buzz.  Unfortunatly, sites in "preview" also usually have a few bugs that can be quite bothersome and need to be hit with the zapper.

A couple bugs that will soon be fried are...

1. Date stamp on latest video feed is sometimes squished
2. More from this partner is in some cases "More from another partner"
3. Audio levels are very low for some videos (we will only able to modify this a to a degree, some audio issues are the result of the audio encoding on the WMV file.
4. When returning to a specific video via a direct link...some of the videos don't resolve and others disapear.
5. Some of the titles are being cut short

I wanted to let everyone know what we are working on and will post a more extensive list of bugs we're tracking tomorrow. We really appreciate your feedback.

 PS.  If you're having issues uploading a video, please log into the site with your Windows LiveID, then visit the create tab where you will see an "upload" button that will take you through an upload wizard.

The world finds out about Digital Forum

As our film crew was busy pumping out videos with partners, the press found out what we were up to in partner labs.

Check out what they are saying around the site.

eChannelLine

CNET

eWeek

Search UI revealed

We finally have the Silverlight UI complete for the Unified Search prototype and are working on deploying the code to the live servers for partners to test. As we scramble to get the final pieces of the Unified Search interface ready for in-person focus groups with partners today, I wanted to give everyone a sneak peak at the exciting changes we've made to the project.  Be sure to comment on these changes--your feedback will help us make this project better.

Opening Page – This is the page users start out at when visiting UPS. We have the Top Level of Search Navigation with our three categories (Partner, Knowledge Base, Learning). Users can also select the source system filters from the bottom of the page.

Second Level Nav – Shows the UPS user the second level of Search Navigation under the Knowledge Base category. We have made the searches very developer focused but they can be altered with Partner feedback.

Basic Search Results – Our UPS user has clicked the IT Pro Community folder and UPS has retrieved search results relating to the community from the 5 source system exposed in the Unified Partner Search system (Partner Portal, Partner Learning Center, MSDN, TechNet, Live Search). We display each result in a icon based view with the source system and file type exposed. Hover over the result icon and the user will receive a short description of the page.

Filtered Results – Since our search was focused on IT Pro Community, I want to focus in on the source systems best suited to developer content, MSDN and TechNet. I used the filters that are available in the search result window to remove results from the Portal, PLC and Live Search. Results from these source system can be added back in by reselecting the checkbox.  

List View FreeText – UPS allow users to work with up to 5 search results windows. We have expanded the canvas to increase the amount of working room that we have. Results windows are stackable but this allows more freedom to view results side by side. In my second search I use the text entry box in the main canvas to search for “Partner Sales Management”. A new results window opened and I used the filtering in the results pane to limit results to the Partner Portal and Partner Learning center. In this results window we are using the List View to look at the search results in a more traditional view.   

Saved Results – We have identified search results that we want to keep and moved them into the saved results area. A click on any of the icons will open the page with the search results in a new window.

Flipping the switch at the Worldwide Partner Conference