My name is Jeff Betcher. I've worked as a creative director at Microsoft for just about
23 years. And I'm a director of brand strategy here at Microsoft. And I've been at Microsoft
for what's coming up on 21 years now. Technology in itself is no longer the leading factor
to help differentiate everything we do. We've been investing a lot in terms of how do we
make people the center of the experience. And when we look at it across a spectrum of
our products, we start to see that there are these new emerging patterns and trends. People
are starting to see that design isn't just something that you wipe on after you've finished
the product. It's not just the skin, but it's actually an integral part of the experience
that you're delivering to the customer. Suddenly we see that we're creating products that not
only work really well in our relevant in people's lives, but suddenly they look amazing. They
communicate clearly. Our goals as designers isn't just to create great experiences that
people can use, but really thinking about how we can empower people to create their
own experiences and really express their own creativity. We want to reach a deeper connection
with our customers where they really feel there's something there for them that makes
their lives look better. Microsoft Design Principles, which talk about the end-to-end
story. Oh yes, pride and craftsmanship, fast and fluid. Authentically digital, being honest
and celebrating building blocks that we're about like typography and color and motion
and those things. I think that's really, really important and it's nascent. We've been really
reductive and have talked about this principle of doing more. With less. And part of that
is about respecting the person on the other side. There is no reason why UI shouldn't
be able to reflect the principles or things that you care about. So we have created systems
that allow people to express their personality or to have our products express the things
that they care about. We didn't invent these design principles they came from within. That's
making the work so much more authentic and true to Microsoft. Remember the importance
of our brand. Remember that ultimately all of our products together, we are Microsoft
and we are one Microsoft. How do you make something that reflects your heritage and
be true but also you're looking forward and be fresh and bold and make a statement. Kudugra
was doing the Microsoft logo because that actually really creates all the connection.
But it's not just a logo, right? It's all the attributes and qualities and personality
that the people within Microsoft really try to rally around and embrace and present to
the outside world. It tells that story of connection. It tells that story of the ecosystem
and it creates that family feel for the company. Communicates the essence of simplicity and
order that we want to bring to the Microsoft experience. I can't tell you how many dog
ears of my life I've given away towards sorting through what font to use. So go, it's our
font. It is Microsoft. It represents truly our personality. Now we have something that
spans our products, spans our brand. It works out in communications. It works within the
products. The typography is the aspect of the design that gives us our voice. But also
it doesn't try to outshine everything. It doesn't try to be like the hero. Type tells
a story. Type needs to be beautiful in itself, but what it says is more important. The way
that we treat color isn't, oh. We're building products for every person on the planet and
I think kind of a rich and vibrant color palette is really important to the communications
of that. We're about multifaceted, very vibrant, big, bold, beautiful, colorful world. We've
gone right back to those sort of these memory colors which are like, it's red. What does
red look like? It's red. It's hard. It's hot. I've got it. I'm wearing a black shirt. Tomorrow
we're a red shirt. You want people, our customers, to feel this is a design for them and how
do you make something that's more personal?
Imagery is another really huge strong point for Microsoft where we're talking about the
individual as the hero.
People respond to things visually and that actually if you use imagery you can use fewer
words.
Really is what we think about and how to help people understand and decide quicker.
We want to present a real world. It's not posed. It's real people. It's real life. It's
real messy. It's not like everything perfectly groomed. That means embracing every kind of
age, groups, ethnicity, all sorts of things and not being afraid to do that.
People are naturally make order out of the world. They want there to be grouping. That's
how we understand things because if you don't, it's just undifferentiated noise.
We've been creating a lot more sort of tools and templates rather than rules and guidelines.
Rules are good for the soul. They're the foundation. You can't design without a grid.
It gives us the ability to scale. It gives us the ability to think across all the different
sizes of screens that we need to accommodate for to be able to reach our users.
What that does is that allows you to give like the big important part and then respectfully
allow somebody if they want more to go into the lower levels as opposed to blasting everything
out at one volume. It's meant to have these sort of richness in levels.
Why is design important right now? It should always be important.
Composition, proportion, font, burning, color theory, everything is done to perfection.
Now you can see it. You can actually visualize, you know, this unbelievable ecosystem and
that has real power. Design for me means keep things really simple, but there has to be
some life in that simplicity. We can make a better world. We can make
it so all these things work harmoniously together. To make sure that we are all speaking one
microphone. The more we can empower people to be expressive
and create the kind of experiences that they experience every day, we'll allow more people
to create useful things. I should enjoy what I'm doing because ultimately
I want to give a presentation or I want to present something that is me.
I want us to take back design and I want us to take back our world class standing of amazing
applications, amazing power, amazing reach. I love the fact that we can build technology
that can impact literally everybody on the planet.
I think design to us is a verb. It's how do we make things better?
The experience that someone wants to have is a wonderful one that they fall in love
with. That's what I would like from every Microsoft product.
I think I want them to say, wow, that looks like Microsoft. It's beautiful.
