Microsoft has transformed itself from a technology-centric to a user-centric organisation - and the role of design in this new paradigm has been central.
‘In 1993 design was a luxury. It is now generally accepted that design is critical to our success,’ says Brad Weed, Director of User Experience at Microsoft, who led the transformation of MS Office 2007 through a core set of design principles. Support for this new strategy comes from the very top in Microsoft, being driven by Bill Gates, the company’s chairman and chief software architect.
Microsoft’s design process has evolved as the company realised it needed a more user-centred approach to product development.
A key element of this was the realisation that the growing capability of its technology brought greater complexity - and that this could adversely affect the way in which users responded to the company and its products. In response, Microsoft identified design as a critical method to quickly translate user needs into products.
Technology can master complexity, but design must master simplicity
The way design is considered in the role of product development has also changed in that time, with the design process moving from a ‘user interface’ to a ‘user experience’ paradigm. ‘It’s not just about real estate’, adds Erez Kikin Gil, Product Design Lead at Microsoft, pointing to the need to move the scope of design into experience, almost taking for granted that the necessary technology exists. This change is mirrored in Microsoft’s own shift in offer: and a company that was once entirely product focused now offers an increasing number of services to its customers.
As design has taken on a more central role at Microsoft, so the company’s design function has become central in developing some of the key ideas for user centred product development. Today, design is represented in all product development teams.
In order to monitor the standards of excellence that Microsoft sets for its products and services, and for them to adequately reflect user needs, a User Experience Excellence group supports skills and expertise that are part of new product development, including design.
The central User Experience Excellence group, and indeed other Excellence groups covering other areas within Engineering, act as repositories of best practice and as agents for change. They encourage wider management to understand the power of strong design input and ensure the creation of a culture and the tools required to do this.
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