Microsoft gets ready to work amidst all the changes happening in the company, setting its sights on designs that move with people to get back into the game.
Microsoft is just like any other established company in that it has its own set of traditions. These traditions guide the company, helping steer it into the right direction so it doesn't lose sight of what it is deep down. But like any other company, Microsoft must also move with the times, incorporating change where change is due to move forward and evolve.
Changes are indeed happening in Microsoft and the way the company thinks about design was one of the first to get an overhaul. In fact, over the last few years, Microsoft doubled the number of designers in its fold to about 1,400. This is still a small number compared to the 64,000 that is the company's engineers, but designers are doing good work shaping products and building user interfaces by drawing inspiration from the various backgrounds they are from.
Gone are the days when designers were simply called in to make icons. Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president for personal computers, tablets and phones at Microsoft, says things have changed. Today, Microsoft is empowering its designers to challenge pre-conceived notions of what a device can do. The company has long been associated with the workplace and it wants to break free from that stereotype without diminishing the reliable reputation it has built through the years.
Taking a page or two from Apple's book, Microsoft wants to build reliable machines that can be a part of anyone's day. It wants to build devices that are powerful enough to cater to the demands of office work but at the same time fun enough to be used at home for entertainment. With proper design, there doesn't have to be a divide and that's what Microsoft is aiming for.
Take the Surface, for example. "In a way, we've designed Surface with very similar principles. Surface is trying to dissolve into your day," explained Microsoft chief designer for the Surface tablet, Ralf Groene.
As a first step in empowering designers, Microsoft is including them in product development, from the early stages of the process down to the manner by which a device is marketed to consumers. Designers are also enjoying more prominent leadership roles now, like Albert Shum, who now heads interaction design for Microsoft PC systems, phones and gaming consoles, all of which have been previously managed separately.
