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XP was literally the completion of everything I had worked on at Microsoft, the combination of the NT kernel, high performance, rock-solid stability, and the friendliness and compatibility of Windows 95. JB: I had been working on the core Windows user interface, including IE, for about 10 years by the time XP was nearing completion, and it was just time to do something a little different. PT: What made you decide to join the eHome team? We need to go the distance to make it easier. I try to make the engineers remember that the people who use the products aren’t necessarily like us. It would have worked, but the real value is when you keep going and make it invisible to the user. With wireless, we could have taken the typical route to adding these capabilities, which is to make it possible, add lots of options, and then stop there. We have to be disciplined, and understand that many of our users are different from us. You have to remember that most of the people who work at Microsoft on Windows are sophisticated computer hobbyists.
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Because the PC appeals to more people now, I felt that we needed to find way to communicate capabilities to users in a more conversational way.Īnother example is wireless networking. But this led to too many easily accessible but visually indiscernible icons in toolbars all over the place. At Microsoft, the goal was always about making people more efficient. In Windows XP, I pushed hard for us to do friendly English descriptions of tasks in the My Pictures and My Music folders. I’ve always believed that effective implementation is the key to helping users. What I do is focus on the concepts and how we communicate them to users. JB: Well, I’m not a graphic designer, and I don’t draw pictures very well. PT: So how would you describe your influence over the design of these products?
Then, I worked on Windows 2000, and finally Windows XP, as Product Unit Manager for the Windows user experience. The idea was that we would combine the Web browser with the Windows shell, so that users could navigate from folders to Web pages and back again with a consistent interface. The same folks who had been doing the Windows shell did the IE 3 and 4 user interfaces. I became the Group Program Manager for the Internet Explorer 4 integrated shell, which was released both to the Web and as part of Windows 98. I became the Lead Program Manager for the Windows 93 user interface, which became known as “Chicago,” and then Windows 95.Īfter Windows 95 shipped, my team and I began working on the Internet Explorer user interface. Then, right before Windows NT shipped, I moved over to the Windows team. I became the first-ever user interface manager for NT, and stayed in that job for a few years. Then the whole Microsoft/IBM split happened and I was reassigned. My first job was actually as a Program Manager for OS/2 2.0, though that only lasted about a week.
Joe Belfiore (JB): I was hired by Microsoft in August 1990, right out of school as a CS major. Paul Thurrott (PT): Before we get started, let’s talk a bit about your background.
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I discussed Media Center with Joe just after the product’s code was finalized. Joe is one of those instantly likeable guys, and I was happy to spend a little time with him last year, reminiscing about some of the features that didn’t make it into IE 3, like Site Map and FTP Folders.Īnyway, like Windows itself, Joe has moved on since then, and in his current position with the eHome Division, he helped guide the development of Microsoft’s latest XP version, Media Center Edition. What struck me most about Joe at the time was his honest excitement and enthusiasm for the work he was doing at Microsoft, and now that I’ve gotten to know him a bit better since then, I can say that he hasn’t changed a bit. I first met Joe at the Windows XP Beta 2 Reviewer’s Workshop in February 2001, but remembered him from an IE 3 alpha demonstration in early 1996, when he was working on Microsoft’s then-nascent attempts to combine the Windows shell with IE, providing users with a consistent experience between the two navigation paradigms.
Joe has been an instrumental part of Microsoft’s user experience efforts since the first version of what became Windows NT, and his background includes user interface work on Windows 95, Internet Explorer 3 and 4, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and the new Media Center experience in XP Media Center Edition. Here’s my complete interview with Joe from August 29, 2002, just before the launch of the product. Way back in 2002, I spoke to Joe Belfiore, who was then the general manager of user experiences at Microsoft’s Windows eHome division, about the evolution of “Freestyle” into Windows XP Media Center Edition.