“Change the world or go home.”
– old Microsoft saying
I’ve done a ton of design work over the last decade at Microsoft in many different areas, most of which I can’t show you to protect the IP involved. This represents a small sampling of the work that’s shipped and in part covered by some of these patents.
Goes without saying nothing is ever really done in isolation when collaboration is so key to the success of these large scale projects, so this work not only represents my thoughts but those of my talented friends and coworkers over the years.
The Garage
Microsoft Corp.
(In progress)
My current work is helping people throughout the company move their ideas forward. Whatever they are truly passionate about turns into real projects within The Garage, which is a global community of Makers, Designers, Hackers, Artists, Marketers – all focused on figuring out if their ideas could work. We do this through events like hackathons, classes such as Stay Late and Build, and providing spaces for these tinkerers to play. It’s hard to believe I get paid for this.
Some of my design work from Garage events and website:
Modern Datacenter Management
Microsoft Corp.
This information visualization work was focused on clarifying the extreme scale and complexity found in the modern datacenter, so that people can get their work done more quickly and confidently. These environments are unforgiving and dynamically changing, so the key is to understand what’s truly important vs. putting everything on the glass. Very challenging work. Not something most people are ever exposed to, but at the far end of complexity when it comes to setting up and managing the world’s largest live internet services.
Big Data
Microsoft Corp.
2012
As part of our explorations of the issues that confront IT Pros, we did some design work around using time as a major axis for data explorations of Big Data. The key findings of this work were that people need both gross targeting or scrubbing of date ranges as well as fine grain control. There are situations where precise dates are not known, but scrubbing through time reveals the trends that are most interesting.
Designing for Scale + Complexity
Microsoft Corp.
2012
Organized a company-wide conference to share insights and discuss the challenge of evolving the Microsoft Design Language to gracefully and effectively handle the type of extreme scale and complexity found in our global services.
Windows Server
Microsoft Corp.
2011
Lead Designer of the effort to bring a modern feel, interaction and visual language to the Server Manager product which allows IT Pros to setup, configure and troubleshoot multiple servers from one console. This major overhaul of Server Manager was extremely well received by long time customers and the media.
Windows 8
Microsoft Corp.
2010
User Experience Designer on the Windows team during the pre-planning phase where we explored the key scenarios and design principles that would shape this reimagined modern operating system.
Windows 7
Microsoft Corp.
2010
United States Patents #D601164, #D614656S1, #D601165S1, #D614665S1, #D601170S1, #D601579S1, #D614666S1, #D614657S1
User Experience Designer on the Windows team for updated File Explorer, Libraries, Search, Brand, and Icon design. Special emphasis on how virtual collections of content (i.e. “Libraries”) would work and scale for the modern operating system.
Internet Explorer 8
Microsoft Corp.
2009
United States Patent #20090150826
Worked closely with the IE team for a year to help design these new and improved features for the browser wars:
- smart Address Bar
- improved Search box
- tear off tabs
- page zoom
- InPrivate Browsing
- F12 Developer Tools
Windows Live “Casino” (codename)
Microsoft Corp.
2006
Not shipped. Design exploration for presenting system-wide search in a postcard metaphor, featuring large photography of the backdrop for the header or the entire window. This pre-dates the Bing design that utilized this technique by four years.
Semantic Canvas
Microsoft Corp.
2006
United States Patent #7685116B2
Powerful search syntax teaching mechanism built into working prototypes of the “Casino” project. Surfaced Property|Value pairs that allowed quick and accurate filtering on-the-fly for searches. Still has not been executed to its full potential by today’s search providers.
Office Outlook 2007
Microsoft Corp.
2005
United States Patents #11430416, #11430562, #11430561
User Experience Designer for powerful new Search features, featuring the orange filtered state look. This was a major overhaul of the way search was done within the app, and solved a key usability problem of people not knowing their emails were in a filtered state. Introduced a search query syntax language built into the search box itself.
MSN Mobile
Microsoft Corp.
2003
United States Patent #10715944
User Experience Lead PM during the early days of Mobile computing. Built and led a UX team that delivered early graphical versions of mobile apps. First US Patents awarded for this work called “Mobile Lens” – still has not been implemented in this unique way.
M. Pell | FUTURISTIC DESIGN, INC. 