z33driver wrote:
toast wrote: z33driver, that isn't really what I was thinking of.
You asked if Microsoft has a UI team and UI guidelines, and I posted a link to the copious UI guideline information published by Microsoft.

Did you read the link, or are you just trolling?
I was being serious. I checked the link and interpretted it to be guidlines on widgets and UI components and how they relate (the nuts and bolts of Vista's UI components) but not about the complex nature of fitting an application's UI (UX probably explains where I am coming from a little better) together and understanding the flow of use and the cognition that occurs in the user as they move through/across the application.

That link also appeared to be for external customers only.

I guess you could think about the arrangement of food products at your nearby supermarket. There are guidlines about all of the components used in the displays and shelving, but the placement, catagorising and the understanding about how the shoppers might flow through the shop most efficiently is something else altogether. I guess it is like that for anything that humans use in the world.