Design

For V1 of ADO.NET Data Services (aka Project Astoria) we introduced a process we called Transparent Design.   The point of this was to make sure we got the design of our features out to users early enough so we could get feedback that we could act on.   Here is a couple of…

The Next-Gen PC design competition has been judged and at the top of the stack of very nice entries is this multi-user, multi-interface Napkin PC by Avery Holleman. You can see the rest of the submissions here, last years winners can be found here. Let us know what you think, which ones do you…

If you’ve ever needed to create vector graphics, but your pocketbook came up a little short on the cash needed to purchase Adobe Illustrator, you now have another alternative: Creative Docs .NET. This completely free tool (for personal use) offers a lot of features that will help you make…

Visio is a surprisingly flexible tool, and many designers now use it to create wireframes.  Po-Yan Tsang is a PM on the Visio team responsible for designer-oriented features.  In this interview, she talks about the decision process they use to add new features to Visio, gives some…

Wow, these are nice! The Small Business site is offering some really good looking designer templates for Microsoft Office 2007 as a free download. There are templates for presentations, spreadsheets, invoices, business cards, emails, and newsletters. And if you're using a Mac, you'll be happy to…

The Live Search page got a new UI. I actually first heard the news from a quick post over at the Windows Live Chronicles blog, so I went to check it out. I think it's rather pretty myself. What do you think? There's a post on the official blog of the Live Search team about the redesign.…

Jeff Weir is a UX Designer in Microsoft's Live Labs. Between free alcohol, parties, more alcohol, more parties, and a general lack of sleep, Jeff managed to win the South by Southwest (SXSW) Web Award in the Art category. Jeff's application, Viscosity, is a modern art generator. Viscosity kind of…

Please use this page for all questions and comments related to this session. Visit http://sessions.visitmix.com for session recordings as they become available.From Long Tail to Fuzzy Tale: Why "Fuzzy" Is the New ClearSpeakers: David ArmanoDescription: Come hear how interdisciplinary teams…

In this spill-over from a panel discussion at MIX, the attendees continued a conversation about the Business of Design. The topics in this recording range from how to spec a project, to the designer/developer workflow, to hiring vs growing talent.

I read an interesting post this morning on how the author wanted folks to consider the 800px resolution for their designs. He cites that although he has a large resolution, it doesn't mean that he's not also using other applications at the same time. ...But with 1900+ pixels, I keep half for…