Things that have been bugging me for years that are every day things that people want to do with their phone when they take it out of their pocket. Wonder where to have those conversations outside of MIX? 

Nikita

posted by NikitaP

Notwithstanding what I wrote above, I think the two designers did a fantastic job on the Windows Phone 7 Series. I also agree with Bill Buxton's claim, that you don't really know something well, until you know its limits.

posted by PDoug

@PDoug - Interesting idea. If you have any questions you'd like us to ask Bill or Albert on your behalf at MIX10 please let us know (ch9live [AT] microsoft [dot] com or @ch9live on Twitter)

posted by nic

posted by ac23

I suspect that we agree more than you think.  My cardinal rule is that everything is best for something and worst for something else.  That certainly goes for soft keyboards (graphical touch screen keyboards and controls).  The limitation that I was pointing out was the general inability of them to support touch typing, i.e., to enter text eyes free.  The reality is that this is sometimes important.  But by the same token, yes, there are lots of advantages.  Thanks for keeping me on my toes. 

Bill

posted by Bill Buxton

I believe physical keyboards are great for old CLI and newer GUI computers. I believe however if you want the best touch user experience on larger devices, virtual keyboards are best. A user can have a clean, simple experience, contending with only one main input / output device - his computer screen. I think having audio feedback will allow users to arguably better touch type on virtual keyboards than on physical keyboards. Users could go into Windows settings, and specify that their virtual keyboards supply audio feedback, and then set the parameters for that feedback. (Parameters could include volume, sound types, etc.) Maybe touch PCs could ship with special, cheap ear buds, that allow only the user to hear audio feedback as he types - and not disturb people around him?

Beyond the above, having virtual keyboards in a touch experience opens up so many new possibilites. (E.g. please see here - which I referenced in my previous message.) The user could e.g. use a wizard to easily define a variety of keyboard layouts. The user could use a wizard to create programable keys that define the keys, and the macros they run. The user could easily gain access to different character sets - e.g. Roman, Asian, Russian character sets. Non-Roman character sets could be more effectively laid out for the user - rather than be shoe horned into physical keyboard layouts designed for Roman letters. The user could eaily include custom key characters into a virtual keyboard layout. I could go on and on.

I'm glad to see design finally reaching prominence at MS. I believe design (around touch computing) is MS' best hope to re-vitalize its Windows and other platforms in the eyes of users, making it also the preferred platform for developing applications by programmers - over the browser.

posted by PDoug

posted by exoteric

I am hoping that Bill reads this and can clarify a few things for me.  These were some of the questions I came up with thinking through everything said.

What does the collaboration process look like using a BXT approach?  Would you say that all three of those disciplines are included on the design team? If not, where do they fit into the design process?

Hearing more about design at MIX, it seems to raise a bigger question in my mind about who the designer actually is.  At the conference and in the context of most website projects, the designer seems to be the person who has an art background and essentially creates the visual and verbal message communicated on a website.

When developing enterprise applications where an established look and feel is already in place, who is the designer on that project? The only roles I see are the business stakeholders, business or systems analyst, and technology.  The business analyst would be the one gathering the requirements, writing out the business rules, and designing a solution.  Would they be considered a designer?  The Software Engineers create system designs, class/object design, etc… On a purely technical project, would they be the designer? Is the term designer used too loosely in general with web projects? Should we be calling them artistic designers instead?

An article (http://betterthanarobot.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/bill-buxtons-advice/) that quotes one of your session’s at MIX starts by saying, “Designers are owners of product and negotiators”.  On most projects, I have seen the project manager being in the neutral position playing the role as negotiator and the business as the true product owner deciding product features based on resources and needs.  All specialties seem to have their bias being the most important or leading role in a project.  Aren’t designers just as lowly as everyone else?

posted by JonathanHolt