Talks on Microsoft Surface and Office UI

Predicting the Past: A Design Vision for Microsoft Surface

A new inflection point in human-computer interaction is upon us. Along with other technologies, Microsoft Surface marks a departure from graphical user interface (GUI) into the world of Natural User Interface (NUI.) This talk focuses a lens on how one design team is thinking about designing for a new era in which intuitive interaction is the imperative. Using theoretical models drawn from a mix of history, science, philosophy, and even video game design, this presentation reveals some principles behind experience design for Microsoft Surface and beyond.

Lisa C. Anderson is currently the Microsoft Surface User Experience Director. Previous to this role, she held similar positions at Intuit and Autodesk in the Bay Area. In years past, Lisa acted as User Experience Director for several other teams at Microsoft: Windows XP, MSN, Real Time Collaboration. She was also Executive Producer at Corbis for several years, where she produced award-winning, high-end documentaries on CD-ROM (Leonardo da Vinci;  Critical Mass: America’s Race to Create the Atomic Bomb; FDR; The Barnes Collection). Her background and education are in Design, Art History, English Literature, Writing, Editing, Publishing.

The Story of the Ribbon

Farewell, menus and toolbars! In this talk, you'll hear the behind-the-scenes stories of how the Microsoft Office 2007 Ribbon user interface was imagined, designed, and validated. You'll see never-before-shown early prototypes, hear about the mistakes we learned from during the design process, and find out the principles of user experience design we used each step of the way in creating the first totally new user interface for Microsoft Office.

Jensen Harris is the Group Program Manager of the Microsoft Office User Experience team and was one of the key designers behind the new Ribbon user interface introduced in Office 2007.
Jensen joined Microsoft in 1998, and has focused on the overall user interface of Microsoft Office since late 2003. Prior to working at Microsoft, Jensen graduated with degrees in music composition from Yale University and Interlochen Arts Academy. He publishes his thoughts on software and user interface design on his blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh.