Predicting the Past: Emotional Design and a Vision for Microsoft Surface
August de los Reyes, User Experience Director for Microsoft Surface

September 23, 2008 – 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Presentation Style: Based on The Lessig Method, with gorgeous graphics, video asides, repetition, gentle humour.

An amiable, quiet and well spoken August began sharing his team’s design philosophies which are leading the shift from traditional graphical user computing interactions to a more natural user experience. He took us to a world where, more than ever, data is the point, and showed us some pretty slick concept videos where delivery of that data is a seamless, intuitive key to access the information we want and need.

We listened as he explained how software engineers looked at the from the mechanics level up to the aesthetic, while users did the complete opposite. August’s task was to find the “sweet spot” that leveraged the complexity of the mechanics while enhancing the aesthetics giving the user the most intuitive experience. This is exactly how they approached Microsoft Surface, looking for that sweet place where users would be emotionally engaged with the technology so transparent as to disappear from the participant’s awareness.

By spending a lot of time researching, planning and thinking, engineers ensure users won’t have to. They want to tap into the participants emotional responses, which will ensure an imprint of pleasure, knowledge, and most importantly to Microsoft, brand loyalty.

August took us on a computer interface journey. From the Command Line Interface (CLI) days, when we had to directly input information into a static environment, to now with our Graphics User Interface (GUI) using a mouse cursor, buttons, rollovers and dropdown menus to the idea of the next step: Natural User Interface (NUI). Microsoft Surface wants to take us to a tactile, intuitive world where the technology continues to become more and more transparent. A world where we can concentrate on the tasks rather than the method*.

He also touched on a possible future Experience User Interface (XUI) with technology so seamlessly integrated into our lives as to be organically woven into our world.

*Other companys such as Apple has been taking us on the same journey, of course. Some for longer, some for better. For instance: we’ve had iPods, iTouches and the iPhones for quite some (relatively) time now.

Office Labs: Future of personal health concept video

It was an event I am extremely happy to have had the opportunity to attend. A great speaker, with intelligent articulated content, beer, pizza and even a chance to see a $100 Laptop in use.

I can’t help thinking a few things:

• While the concept videos were slick and fun to watch, Microsoft’s “vision” of the future was very Ally McBeal meets Ikea and not very Korben Dallas moves to Blade Runner’s Los Angeles – dude, the future according to Microsoft is super-tidy!
• Technology is strongly shown being used by, and for, homogenised-coloured people of obvious wealth and abundance – there are no extremes of colour, size or expression.
• Hospital scenes are organised, relaxed and well staffed – patients are happy in their featureless “healing” cells.
• Office scenes show gentile collaboration and seamless integration of process – no shit flying in these places of work.

Yeh yeh I know, they’re concept videos – they’re supposed to be like that and, to be fair, they were probably set on Mars with the purified creme of humanity having left Earth a few generations ago on the Space Shuttle Tom Cruise leaving the dirt and grimey rest-of-us on home-ferma.

The videos got me thinking about our real world, the one I live on right now and will continue to live on for the forseeable future: thinking about how technology can be used to deal with rising sea levels, food distribution, population control, real education, affordable health care, potable water, maintaining species diversity, consuming less, clean energy etc etc.

Seeing the $100 Laptop in that room last night and the One Laptop Per Child project it represents is the practical step towards a future we can all live with. Education for everyone is the key.

“a micrometer from here” (eng sub) from amit zakai on Vimeo.

How many times have you heard a colleague curse out a piece of software? Heard them tell Microsoft Word it’s a piece of crap, or demanded Final Cut Pro to go straight to hell or proclaimed to all and sundry that cascading style sheets are the most stupid idea ever invented?

I know, I’ve done it myself. The thing is, there came a point during one of these tirads where I figured out why I was unleashing my fish-wife-ish-ness at my computer screen – it turned out the frustration I had with the word processor, the software, the styling language wasn’t actually anything to do with the product itself.

It turned out that I was the problem. Yes: shock and horror! Who knew??

When I had a good hard think about it, the fault was mine. I decided my frustration was mostly to do with the fact that I didn’t have enough knowledge to choose the right tool for the job, nor did I have the relative skills to wield that tool effectively.

“A good craftsman never blames his tools.”

I’ve heard this saying often during my apprenticeship. It took me many years after completing my training to fully appreciate these words though. A good craftsman knows his tools. He knows their advantages, he knows their limitations. He knows when to use one over the other, and most importantly, he is skilled with all the tools at his disposal. This way, he can concentrate on the task at hand, and not get bogged down with logistical frustrations.

Applying this to software – half the battle is deciding which piece of software to use and when to use it.  When to switch from Photoshop to Illustrator, when to engage inDesign, how to export images from 3D StudioMax – it’s about workflow, it’s about knowing your tools strengths and weaknesses: it’s about knowing your own.

Next time you want to rip another hole into Powerpoint, stop and think about what it is that is frustrating you about the software. Is it even the right tool to be using for the job at hand? Or maybe you just don’t know how to use the tool at all? Be honest with yourself and then get help. There are tons of tutorials online – some are free, the really good ones cost a little bit of money – but save yourself some angst, and increase your levels of best practice by becoming a master of your trade.

professional
Adjective

1. of a profession
2. taking part in an activity, such as sport or music, as a means of livelihood
3. displaying a high level of competence or skill: a professional and polished performance
4. undertaken or performed by people who are paid: professional golf

Noun

1. a professional person

Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006

To be “professional” is to be a person with a profession – a lawyer, a doctor, a carpenter, a printer, a programmer, an artist. One conforms to the standards of that profession – uses a code of best practice, maybe – is defined as having learned a skill, become a practitioner or an expert, maybe.

So what, exactly, does it mean when someone tells you that you need to be more professional? Have you noticed when you are given this directive, it hardly never comes with any parameters or guidelines? I have found it to be spoken in a throw-away vagary to put a subordinate in their place. I believe it is a form of passive aggressive insult when delivered without a course of action to improve one’s code of conduct or improve best practices. I have also found it most often spouted by those who are anything but superior in talent and skill.

What exactly does a manager mean when she suggests you dress “more professionally” – is she requiring you to emulate the fashion of the medical profession? Start wearing a lab coat and flat hospital sneakers. If you work in a hospital, fair enough – but what if you work at a telecommunications call centre? Maybe she means hot-pants are in order like the young ladies in the sex working profession? They’re professional, aren’t they? Of course, most of us know what she really means is she’d like you to cover more of your flesh than is showing presently, which is actually – now I think about it, given the sex-worker definition of “professional” – the exact opposite of what she’s asking you to do.

I heard a colleague on the telephone to a client recently saying the artwork sent through by client would have to be reworked so it looked “more professional”. If I had been on the other end of that telephone call, I would have been offended that this person to whom I had contracted work, was suggesting that my work wasn’t up to scratch, wasn’t good enough: that’s how I would interprete “unprofessional”. What my colleague meant of course was that the work did not adhere to the style guidelines and would need to be reworked before being published, but that’s not what he said. He said it was “unprofessional”.

In my opinion, the word “professional” used like this is such a sloppy, weak wrested, lazy use of the word and its use in this context is far too common in todays workplace. If your manager, or colleague is bandying the word “Professional” around without care for specifics, directives or its proper use: call him or her on it.

Otherwise I will, and I am not so diplomatic.