Canadian UX Blog

A New Look for MSDN

qixing — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:41:33 GMT

With the announcement of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 availability couple of weeks ago, you probably notice the different look on MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network). Although the site’s main audience has been developers, recently I’ve found more designers are visiting the site to get knowledge on Silverlight, WPF, Windows 7, and other UX platform and technologies.

First, we have a new logo for MSDN, which is called the Network Wave. I like the new logo design because it captures the movement of different pieces of developer knowledge coming together. :) It’s also an organic design that works well with the .NET 4, VS 2010, and Silverlight logos. It’s a cohesive branding for our development family.

Besides the new logo and color theme of the site, the re-design is trying to address the following top use scenarios and improve the overall user experience:

Help users quickly solve their technical questions or find reference documentations
Connect and engage users on the site who have similar technical interests and connect MSDN users with product teams
Get users to the downloads they need fast
Connect users to the product so that they can easily provide feedback, get deep technical information about the product, and so on
Keep users updated with new technology information and enhance their learning experience

For example, to help users quickly find technical reference, the new design improved discoverability by providing guidance for new developers and MSDN first-time visitors. See the diagram below.

As the weeks to come, more improvements will be visible on the Canadian localized version of MSDN. Make sure you check out the new MSDN site and tell us what you think!

Technorati Tags: MSDN,MSDN redesign

What’s in Store for Sharepoint 2010?

qixing — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:56:48 GMT

Many details surrounding Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 were announced at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas this week. One of Sharepoint2010’s top investment is on User Experience. It utilizes the Ribbiob UI which allows users to easily add, modify and interact with content on the site. In addition, it ships with a true multi-lingual user interface. Once you have the language packs installed and you set the appropriate languages on the sites, end users will be able to interact with SharePoint in the language of their choice. Also, there’s exciting investments in mobile devices. Check out Steve Ballmer’s keynote at the Sharepoint conference.

This Monday, at the Microsoft Mississauga office you can learn about SharePoint 2010 at the inaugural meeting of the Mississauga SharePoint User Group. Rob Windsor from ObjectSharp will take you through what’s new in SharePoint 2010. The session will provide an overview of the product with a particular focus on what’s new for developers. You will learn about the new designers, explorers and templates and overall developer experience for SharePoint 2010. Along the way you’ll see several of the enhancements to the end-user experience including the ribbon, in-place editing, and the new page and dialog interface model.

To register for the event, please go to https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=142514.

Technorati Tags: Sharepoint 2010

Windows 7 is Here!

qixing — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:12:59 GMT

Today is the day! As I’m waking up on the west cost this morning, the celebration of the worldwide availability of Windows 7 has long started from Tokyo, Munich, London, Beijing, Paris, Dubai, New York, and our own Toronto office. I thought to gather some Windows 7 launch related facts and resources below for you on this post.

In celebration of Windows 7, more than 800,000 people will join in the celebration by gathering at house parties to share their enthusiasm for Windows 7 with family and friends.
Starting today, Windows 7 and Windows 7 PCs are available in more than 45,000 retail stores around the globe, including our first-ever Microsoft-branded retail store in Scottsdale, Arizona. This Microsoft Store and the corresponding online store at http://microsoftstore.com will offer PCs, accessories, and third-party software directly to consumers
Windows 7 breaks Amazon UK pre-order volume record, ousts Harry Potter
You can follow the Canadian Windows 7 conversation on twitter by searching for hashtag #cdnwin7.
Today, the Channel 9 Team launched a new Online Windows 7 learning course.
If you are developing for Windows 7, you may want to check out the Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers. It includes 14 different modules, with a total of 32 different labs.
Don’t forget that the official Windows UX Interaction Guidelines is your friend of building high quality and consist user experience for Windows-based applications.

Go Windows 7!

Technorati Tags: Windows 7,Resource,News

Steve Ballmer on “The Hour” Tonight!

qixing — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:08:26 GMT

What a great way to come back from my vacation other than celebrating Windows 7 releasing tomorrow! Our company CEO Steve Ballmer is in town and on tonight’s episode of CBC’s news show The Hour, Steve will have an one-on-one conversation with George. Should be a great interview and a chance to get to know this visionary leader behind Microsoft.

The Hour airs on CBC tonight at 11 p.m. Eastern.

Explore Design is Back! – Part II

qixing — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:56:08 GMT

In Part I of the Explore Design post, I introduced the student lounge we are presenting this year. In this post, I’ll introduce you the presentations from Microsoft and our partners to watch out at the conference. It’s less than two weeks away!

Two Keynotes

Oct. 14 @ 11:00am: Experience Design by Sara Diamond

Apple! BMW! Umbra! These brands offer a seamless and pleasurable adventure with their products. The method is ‘experience design’, a process that starts with an understanding of who you, the user of a product is, what your needs and culture is, and then creates a product that not only meets but exceeds your expectations. This talk traces the shift towards product as experience in the digital century, explores examples of tools and interactions used to facilitate experience design in the design process.

Sara Diamond is the President of the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Canada's foremost university of art and design. She holds degrees from Canada and the United Kingdom in social history, communications, digital media theory and computer science. She is currently a member of the Ontario Ministry of Culture's Minister's Advisory Council on Arts & Culture, the Board of Directors of the Toronto Arts Council Foundation and of ORANO, Ontario's high speed network. She is a founding member of CONCERT and the Chair of the OMDC funded Mobile Experience Innovation Centre. She has received numerous research awards for her work in visualization, mobile content design, wearable technologies and collaborative tools. She is a visualization software researcher and developer www.codezebra,net <http://www.codezebra,net/> . Diamond created and was Editor-in-Chief of www.horizonzero.ca <http://www.horizonzero.ca/> , an on-line showcase for new media art and design, in collaboration with Heritage Canada. Diamond participates in peer review publication and diverse editorial boards such as Leonardo on-line and Convergence. She provides media consulting to Heritage Canada, SSHRC, CFI, Industry

Canada, CHRC and DFAIT, as well as international governments, institutions and agencies as diverse as China, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Finland, Australia, Brazil and the USA.

Prior to her presidency at OCAD Diamond was the Director of Research for the prestigious Banff Centre. She created the renowned Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) in 1995 and led it until coming to Toronto in 2005. Diamond developed international summits and business development workshops and accelerators that explored the near future of new media. She built alliances between artists, designers, architects, scientists, social scientists, and international and Canadian businesses. Diamond taught at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, The California Institute for the Arts and remains Adjunct Professor, University of California, Los Angeles in the Design/Media Department. In 2007 she was named one of Canada's fifty most significant artists as part of the Canada Council's fiftieth anniversary celebration. Her work resides in collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, where she was honored with a retrospective in 1992 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Oct. 15 10:00am: User experience: a part of everyday life by James Horgan

A discussion of some of the real world examples of good (and bad!) user experiences. Learn how user experience design is part of today's software development and the various techniques and tools used to create an original and useful interactive product. Find out how Infusion is working with Microsoft to create exciting new paradigms in gestural computing.

James Horgan is a Masters graduate with distinction in Interactive Design from Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, London, UK ‐ one of the world's leading design colleges. A product designer and information architect for some of Europe's top technology companies in the fields of software, finance and education he has also worked for recognized North American brands including Pfizer, Microsoft and Ford, and has won two design awards for his work. Currently he is the User Experience Director for Infusion Development, working on creating innovative interactive solutions for both Microsoft Surface (he helped design and develop Infusion's first Microsoft Partner application) , and creating new applications designs for international clients. He holds several interactive design patents and copyrights.

Seminar speakers:

Oct. 14 @ 1:00pm: Bing for Today by Stacey Jarvis

Do you Bing? Well if you haven’t tried it – you are behind the times. Stacey will take you through an in-depth look at Search – past & present – and the cool new search user experience recently released on Bing, including the latest in 3D maps imagery. Plus, find out how you can incorporate Bing, or Bing maps directly into your web design.

With over thirteen years experience in search marketing, Stacey Jarvis is no stranger to Search. She joined Microsoft Canada in 2007 as a member of the launch team for adCenter in Canada and for the past three years, has been working with the Search team at Microsoft. In her current role, Stacey oversees the all-up Microsoft search business in the Canadian market which includes product development, marketing strategy, competitive analysis and consumer research.

Prior to Microsoft, Stacey worked with global agencies Wunderman and Lowe Worldwide with a focus in online media, SEO, SEM and direct and interactive relationship marketing.

Oct. 15 @ 1:00pm: What makes a game fun? A good story and a good design. By Christian Beauclair

Have you ever thought you could write the next big game title for a console? Or thought you could have done a better job at a console hit. Are you considering a job in making games? This session is for you. We will look at what it takes to design a compelling game and you will be surprise by the results. You’ll also see XNA 3.1 in action. A platform to design your own game in the comfort of your home for a PC or an Xbox 360. Come experience a little bit of the world of game designing with us.

Christian Beauclair is a senior Developer Advisor at Microsoft Canada. He's been with Microsoft for over 15 years in three main roles. He's been a consultant with lots of experience in the public sector, working with large departments like Correctional Service Canada, Revenue Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs on large scale software development projects and infrastructure deployments. In sales, he was a Technical Specialists working closely with customers to help them achieve their business goals by helping identify the right solutions. In this capacity he's worked more than 3 years on the Public Safety portfolio.

Now as a developer advisor he shares his passion for software development and its different facet with the Canadian ICT community. He has coded in Modula-2, xBase, VB, VB.NET and now C#. His passion also extends to games and various collectibles. He was also one of the major contributors to the creation of the Ottawa .NET user community and still sits on its steering committee.

He holds a Public Executive Program degree from Queen's University and a collegiate diploma from Ahuntsic College in Montreal. He's spoken at many conferences, like Comdex and MIGS and won Consultant of the year and best worldwide Developer Advisor.

Technorati Tags: Explore Design,Design Conference

Introducing WebsiteSpark

qixing — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:37:38 GMT

Crosspost from Developer Connections blog…

What is WebsiteSpark?

If you run or work at a small web design or development firm, WebsiteSpark might be for you! WebsiteSpark is Microsoft’s new global program who goal is to help small web companies succeed.

What do you get with WebsiteSpark? I put together a little graphic that explains it pretty quickly:

Visibility: By being showcased in the WebsiteSpark marketplace as well as through opportunities creating through The Empire’s marketing and business networking programs.
Support: You’ll get hooked up with an entire ecosystem of Microsoft support, network and hosting partners, and web developers and designers so you have a wide range of technical and business resources.
Tools: Full-on access to full versions of current Microsoft web tools and technologies, such as the goodies listed below:

What You Get	What It Is
	Silverlight For building rich internet applications that can do multimedia, access data from the web and can also be run on the desktop.
	Expression A suite of tools for building websites, user interfaces for Silverlight and desktop applications, making web and application graphics, encoding video and building prototype applications in a hurry. You get: - 1 user licence for Expression Studio - Up to 2 user licences for Expression Web
	SQL Server Web Edition Microsoft’s database platform for data needs of all sizes, from the simplest web form to full-on enterprise applications. You get a 4-processor licence of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition.
	Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2 when it becomes available) A server that’s both powerful and easy to maintain, featuring the IIS 7 web server and the Web Platform Installer, which makes it easy to install and upgrade popular web applications. You get a 4-processor licence of Windows Server 2008 (and for 2008 R2 when it comes out).
	Visual Studio Professional The IDE (integrated development environment) that has it all. You get up to 3 user licences of Visual Studio Pro.

Are You Eligible to Join WebsiteSpark? If you can answer “yes” to the two questions below, you are!

Is your company a professional service firm whose primary business is providing Web development and design services for its clients?
Does your company have 10 or fewer people, including owners and employees?
Once you join WebsiteSpark, there’s a simple obligation: in order to continue participating in WebsiteSpark, you must deploy a new public, internet-accessible website developed using the tools and tech given to you by WebsiteSpark within 6 months of joining.

You can stay in WebsiteSpark for up to 3 years. On the first and second anniversary of your initial enrollment, you must update it – that is, confirm your company hasn’t gone public or its ownership hasn't changed.

I Don’t Have a Fee-For-Service Web Shop, I Have a Startup. Can I Get in on This?

No, but we have a program for you – it’s called BizSpark.

I’m a Student and Have Limited Money, and It’s for Books and Beer. Can I Get in on This?

Dude, we have something just for you! It’s called DreamSpark.

How Do You Find Out More?

The details about the program are at the WebsiteSpark site. Check it out, and if it’s right for you, sign up!

[This article also appears in Joey’s personal tech blog, Global Nerdy.]

Technorati Tags: WebsiteSpark,free web tools

[Mini-Tutorial] Creating a Reusable Glossy Button in Blend

qixing — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:11:21 GMT

Creating a button is the “Hello World” example of learning Blend. In this tutorial, I’ll show to how to create a reusable glossy button with Expression Blend 3. The concepts I’ll be covering are:

using gradient brush to create glossy effect
turning graphics into a control
editing a button control template
applying drop effects to an object
editing visual states and transition between states

Enjoy!

You can also download the video here.

Technorati Tags: Blend 3,mini-Tutorial

Design Student of the Month - Kamilla Nikolaev

qixing — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:24:09 GMT

There are a lot of creative students in Canada who are doing innovative work to improve people's life through interactive, visual, informational, and other aspects of User Experience Design. I invited them to introduce who they are and share their work with you. To nominate a Design Student of the Month, email us. The Design Student of the Month for September 2009 is Kamilla Nikolaev. Congratulations!! Let's hear from Kamilla.

Who’s Kamilla?

Kamilla Nikolaev is a multi-talented, Uzbek-Russian Canadian who is a graphic designer, web designer, visual artist, musician, songwriter, and poet. Her designs are defined by rich digital environments that blend form, sound, and music. Kamilla came to Canada four and a half years ago as part of her father's family, who immigrated from Uzbekistan. By then, she had already graduated with Bachelor degrees from an English Philology University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and a Civil Law Academy in Moscow, Russia.

What cool stuff is Kamilla doing?

With the change of the country, it only felt natural to try something new in the professional field as well, and since visual arts and graphic design have always been Kamilla's passion, she entered the George Brown College's School of Design, which she has completed 3 years later with a Dean's Award and the highest grades in her class.

Kamilla has started working in the field of graphic and web design as early as in the first year of design school, after winning a design competition. She has done dozens of freelance projects and worked part-time at the Institute without Boundaries, art-directing and designing many interesting projects, among which are www.canuhome.com, the official website of the award-winning Canühome project by CMHC and the Institute without Boundaries; www.worldhouse.ca, the website of the unique World House Project; many designer, architectural, and artist portfolios such as www.artzu.ca, www.GillesMorin.ca, www.SchoolOfDesignStudioLab.com, www.DougDarrah.com, www.caricarilee.com. Here’s a video montage of demonstrating some of Kamilla's projects.

In the 2008–2009, as part of the post-graduate student team at the Institute without Boundaries, Kamilla has worked on the Renovate Your Neighbourhood program for urban renewal. The team worked with the high-profile clients Habitat for Humanity and Evergreen to create a 5-phase, community-based program which included a retail plan, an outreach campaign and a catalogue of renovation project ideas. The program proposed that urban spaces are a collective responsibility—one that is shared between municipalities, corporations, institutions, non-profit agencies and residents. It aimed to stimulate urban renewal by empmowering citizens to implement simple projects within their constituencies. More information about the program, which will be exhibited in Toronto's City Hall in September, can be found on Worldhouse.ca/re_neighbouhood and Worldhouse.ca/InHouse.

What are Kamilla’s plans after graduation?

Kamilla continues to work on her freelance projects and has just been hired as Senior Creative Designer with the advertising agency PPX. She thinks this is a great opportunity to learn about the business side of design.

Want to learn more about Kamilla?

www.KamillaNikolaev.com

Technorati Tags: StudentoftheMonth,Canadian,Graphics Design,George Brown College

Your Satisfaction Matters!

qixing — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:36:51 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I’m John Oxley and for those that don’t know me, I’m the Director of the Technical Audience team at Microsoft Canada. I manage a team of technical audience marketing managers and technology evangelists that reach out, support and connect with the ICT community. The team is all about empowering your success, helping you make connections, grow your skills and enabling you in your role. From student to CIO, Developer to IT Pro, my teams mission is to build your trust. We endeavour to support you in a manner to earn your satisfaction, gain insight on how we can improve as a company and drive platform adoption. Our focus is not revenue and we don’t have any utilization targets. Twice a year there are two surveys that go out to measure our impact. They are sent out in an online manner in the fall and early spring. One survey focuses on developers, to gauge their level of satisfaction with Microsoft (as a company, resources and products) and understand the technologies they use. The other is a global relationship survey in which we use to gain your feedback and understand your level of satisfaction with our resources, team and support.

I’m sure you can see, given the size of the country this isn’t an easy mission. Yet as it is you that brings the magic of software alive, we aspire to earn your trust so you are very satisfied with your relationship with Microsoft. We do this by listening to you, trying understand what we can do better and being an active participant in the ICT ecosystem. There are many way in which we can help and depending upon the results and your feedback, some we can action right away in Canada and some that we need be your ambassador within Microsoft. Can you help us, help you? My ask is two fold

If you get the survey please take the time to provide us feedback and if you’re not very satisfied please provide us some guidance.
If you don’t get the survey, and would like to provide feedback, I’m always listening and encourage you to send me an email, call me or connect with me on twitter.

We need your help to ensure we are doing the right things, investing in the right areas and to grow our understanding on how we can better serve you and support your success. It’s very important to me and my team to earn your trust and understand how to help. The recent broad positive feedback on TechDays, Align IT, Ignite your Career and other programs give me comfort that we are on the right track…yet when it comes to your satisfaction we don’t want to take anything for granted.

Success to us is earning your trust and for you to feel comfortable to express that you are very satisfied with your relationship with Microsoft and you provide feedback on how we can improve.

Till next time

John

John Oxley

Director Technical Audience Marketing and Community Evangelism

Microsoft Canada | Direct (905) 363- 8589|Messenger joxley@microsoft.com | twitter:joxley

Windows UX Interaction Guidelines

qixing — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:06:32 GMT

Windows 7 has been getting very positive feedback for its improved user experience. Many of our partners are eager to build applications on this new windows platform. In order to establish a high quality and consistency basedline for Windows-based applications, answer your UX design questions, and make your job easier, the Windows product team has published the official Windows UX Interaction Guidelines (a.k.a. UX Guide) last month. You can download the comprehensive guide here.

There’s tons of valuable information in the 828-page guide from general design principles to concrete guidelines for each aspect of UX. In my opinion, the first 32 pages is a great design read which covers the UX design principles for Windows 7, a list of inspirations for how to design a great UX, top design guide violations, and much more. Many of the guidelines apply to software design in general whether you are designing for Windows, the web, or devices. Because Windows 7 also supports multi-touch, there’s a session in the UX guide which specifically focuses on guidelines for Touch Interactions. Below are few examples from the UX Guide to get you interested. I’ll talk more about particular topics in the UX Guide in my future posts. For now, download the UX Guide, use it as one of your design references, and let us know how you like it.

Example of Windows UX Design Principle - Solve distractions, not discoverability

Reduce distractions.
Don’t let features compete with themselves.
Commit to new functionality.
These are not solutions to poor discoverability:
- Pinning an icon in the Start menu.
- Putting an icon on the desktop.
- Putting an icon in the notification area.
- Using a notification.
- Having a first run experience.
- Having a tour.

Example of Windows UX Design Principle - Life cycle of the experience

Consider the user experience at all stages:
- Installation and creation.
- First use and customization.
- Regular use.
- Management and maintenance.
- Uninstall or upgrade.
Walk through the experience as if it has been used for 12 months. Does it have:
- Realistic content.
- Realistic volume

Example of how to design a great experience - Make the experience like a friendly conversation
Think of your UI as a conversation between you and your target users. Suppose you’re looking over a user’s
shoulder and he or she asks, “What do I do here?” Think about the explanation you would give...the steps,
their order, the language you’d use, and the way you explain things. Also think about what you wouldn’t say.
That’s what your UI should be—like a conversation between friends—rather than something arcane that
users have to decipher.

Technorati Tags: UX Guide,Windows UX Guidelines,Windows User Experience Interaction Guildelines

TechDays’ Session: Expression Blend for Developers

qixing — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:15:50 GMT

In just less than a week, TechDays will kick off in Vancouver. There are tons of activities happening around TechDays next week, and I’ll be doing a presentation on Expression Blend for Developers. I really enjoy demoing Expression Blend to developers because it brings design into development and engages developers in the practical UI design level. You don’t need to be an artist to use Blend but it’s more important to understand the object model of UI components when using Blend. Developers are often very good at understanding this. Many of the front-end developers are also designers, and my goal of the presentation is to show you:

Expression Blend is a valuable developer tool that can help you create great UX with better productivity at a lower cost.

In particular, here are some of the things I’ll cover. It’s a very demo heavy talk.

Blend vs. Visual Studio: similarities, differences, and how you can use them together
Practical design tips in Blend: create a glassy effect, animation, visual states for controls
New features in Blend 3: Behaviors, SketchFlow, Visual Databing with Sample Data

If you are doing both design and development work, this session will give you a head start into Blend and teach you tricks that can save you lots of coding in Visual Studio. If you are working with designers, this session will help you better understand Blend’s capability and how to work with them efficiently in Blend. It is the second session in the Developing for the Microsoft-Based Plaftform on Sept. 14. Hope to see you there!

Technorati Tags: TechDays_CA,Expression Blend

Explore Design is Back! - Part I

qixing — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:24:20 GMT

Remember Explore Design? It’s the annual Design Education Fair for Youth. Last year we showed Microsoft Surface, Expression Studio, XNA, etc and invited design leaders from Microsoft Surface and Office teams. This year, we have a even bigger playground at conference by hosting the student lounge.

Do you want to be among the first to try out some of Microsoft’s coolest new technologies? In the Microsoft Student Lounge this year at ED, we will be showing the next version of Windows, even before it is available in stores. You can interact with Windows 7 with one of our multi-touch screens and check out how the user experience design can make your life easier and help you be more productive. Before coming to ED, why not get a PC Hook-up with Christian Lander? It is a web talk show that guides you through PC culture with humour and crazy guests who discovered the right PC to make their digital dreams come true.

Also, in the student lounge, we will show Bing, the new web search experience that helps you make better decisions in shopping, travel, health and more. And your design toolbox just got bigger! Check out how you can use Microsoft Expression Studio to create rich interactive experiences on the web, desktop and phone. For all you future game designers out there, we will show you how to create games for XBOX.

Come to the student lounge to experience digital design, have fun, and win awesome prizes!

Technorati Tags: Explore Design,Windows 7,Design Conference

Upgrade or Migrate from XP or Vista to Windows 7

qixing — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:08:36 GMT

As the new school year is starting, I’ve received questions from several faculties and students about upgrading their PC to Windows 7. For example, ‘Shall I do a upgrade or clean install?" Windows 7 Professional is now available on MSDNAA which you download through your schools. For general public, Win7 will soon be available in retail stores on Oct. 22. My colleague Rodney Buike wrote a great post on the topic of moving to Windows 7, which I’m cross-posting here.

There is a lot of confusion around the upgrade and migration scenarios for people thinking about moving to Windows 7. You may have seen the eye chart (below) put out by Microsoft that attempted to clear things up but from what I have heard this has caused more confusion rather than clarify things.

First lets look at the two install types listed in the chart:

In-Place Upgrade - An In-Place Upgrade is simply inserting the install media and starting an upgrade from within the OS, or by choosing the Upgrade option when booting off the install media. This will keep all your applications and settings in place and is the most straight forward path.

Custom Install - I think this is where the confusion lies as Custom Install means a lot of different things and can be accomplished a number of different ways. The most basic of these installs is to back up all your data, format the hard drive and install the new operating system. Once that is done you can install your applications, copy your data back and reconfigure your system. This is the only way to move from 32bit to 64bit and it is also the most time consuming way.

Personally I always prefer a clean install. One way to simplify this method, and my preferred way of migrating to a new OS (or even when reinstalling the existing OS) is to use the Windows Easy Transfer utility to backup my existing installation and then restore to the new installation. On top of backing up all your data Windows Easy Transfer will back up any system customizations (wallpaper, DPI setting, sounds, etc…) along with application settings. Simply run the tool on the current system and back up to an external device. Once complete, format your PC and install the OS and then run the tool again to restore. There is a great write up here detailing the steps on how to use Windows Easy Transfer to backup and restore settings. This tool can be used in every single one of the custom install options listed in this diagram.

Now in a corporate environment you are not going to walk around to 5, 10, 100, 1129 computers, run Windows Easy Transfer, install the new OS and then restore the settings are you? Well you can, or you can take the lazy admin approach and automate things with USMT and MDT.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 is the tool to create custom images for you to deploy onto PCs into your environment. It is free, currently in Beta 2 which adds support for Windows 7 among other things and can be integrated with Windows Deployment Services (WDS) or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) as well. It can also be integrated with the User State Migration Toolkit 4.0 (USMT). USMT is Windows Easy Transfer for the enterprise and combined with MDT 2010 allows you to automate the backup, deployment, application/driver installation, and restore the users files and settings. You can even use this tool to migrate your servers from 32 bit to 64 bit!

There is a lot of documentation available, a series of videos and a whole day’s worth of sessions at TechDays 2009 that will cover this in depth. If you want to learn more you can still register for TechDays at http://www.techdays.ca

Technorati Tags: Windows 7,Win7 Upgrade,Windows Easy Transfer

Two Interesting Upcoming Presentations This Month

qixing — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:07:40 GMT

The new season for user group activities are starting this month. Here are two presentations that you may be interested.

Four Perspectives on Delivering "Return on Experience" at Metro Toronto .NET User Group

Time: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET)

Location: Manulife Financial, 200 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1E5

Abstract:

We’ve heard a lot recently, from Microsoft and others, about the importance of user experience (UX) and delivering ‘return on experience’ to clients. Tools like Sketchflow for prototyping, Expression Blend for visual design, and frameworks like Silverlight and WPF, are designed to change the way we deliver software projects that incorporate rich and intuitive user experiences.

The reality, of course, is that there are many stakeholders with different perspectives on this process. This evening, let’s talk about how things really work during project delivery “in the wild”.

We’ll look at the process of enhancing user experience from four perspectives: a designer, a team lead, a client, and an account manager. (not personas, but thoughts from real people who have performed or are performing these roles). We’ll use their perspectives as stepping stones to look at the shifting and often nascent tools and processes, and leave time to discuss the future of delivering user experience with those in attendance.

Speaker:

Robert Burke is a Toronto-based IT Consultant and Trainer who’s now part of the team at Infusion Development. He was previously a member of Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Group and based in Dublin, where he spend a lot of time focused on Microsoft User Experience technologies and Guinness. Rob’s background is in artificial intelligence, graphics, and interactive installations, with a dash of biometrics. For more, please see his blog at http://robburke.net and while visiting please forgive the recent obsession with cycling.

Design and the Emotion Commotion - A Counter-Intuitive Emotional Design Approach and its Application to Things to Come at Rotman School of Management

Time: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 5:00PM (5:00pm Presentation, 6:15pm – 7:15pm Q & A and Reception)

Location: Rotman DesignWorks, 9 Prince Arthur Avenue (ground floor), Toronto.

Abstract:

The competitive environment for technology is changing, and its impact on product experience is deep: capabilities, features, and functions are no longer enough. Emotional engagement will distinguish successful consumer experiences of the future. Designing in this world requires we change the way we think about people and products. This presentation provides a brief overview of a counter-intuitive emotional design approach and its application to things to come.

Speaker:

August de los Reyes is the Principal Design Director for Microsoft Surface whose team is dedicated to pioneering intuitive ways to interact with technology. De los Reyes is a member of the Advanced Studies Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he received an MDesS with Distinction in product design through which he explored the relationship of emotion and design intent. He was a visiting associate at the University of Oxford, a visiting lecturer at University of Washington, and a 2009 juror of the International Design Excellence Awards. He is currently researching his next book titled The Poetics of Everyday Objects.

Register for the event. Registration Fee: $99 per person plus GST; $79 per person plus GST for Rotman, UofT, and OCAD Alumni.

Handy Searches from Bing

qixing — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:29:15 GMT

As I’m preparing for my trip to China, I discovered some handy searches from Bing...

Currency Conversion. What’s today’s currency exchange rate for “1 Canadian dollars in Yuan?” I like how the conversation equation is in large and clear font.

Find statistical information. Several friends are coming to China with me in Oct. and it’s their first time visiting China. They’d like to know the “population in Shanghai.” It’s easy for me to find statistical information from Bing, but what I really like is the related searches panel on the left. Since we are going to Shanghai and Beijing, they are also interested in finding out the population in Beijing. It’s just a click away to get that answer from my last search.

Preview videos on search results. Suzhou is my hometown and I want to show my friends what it’s like. I did a video search on “Suzhou” and hover over some of the search results to pick out a good video that shows Suzhou’s ancient architecture and silk production. It’s very handy to have the preview option and saves me the time and effort of opening many web pages. Of course, I can further restrict my searches on video length, resolution, etc.

Check flight status. As I was writing the blog post yesterday, it was time to check my flight status to Vancouver. Simply enter my flight number and I got the information I need.

Real time traffic. When it was time to hand out to the airport, I checked out real time traffic on Bing Map. It even shows the construction sites that I should avoid. No need to turn on the radio and listen to traffic news. It’s traffic information at your finger tip. :)

Check out more Bing tips and tricks here. Don’t forget to share your handy searches from Bing!

Technorati Tags: Bing,Search Experience,Bing Tips and Tricks