Cool Microsoft Design Site

Posted Dec 17 2008 7:47 AM by the JobsBloggers

I can't say this site is new, but it is new to me!  Check out Microsoft's Design Site.  We found this perusing the web the other day and had to share given our passion around revamping our own career site.  It's pretty cool to see the product designers using their skills to develop a site that is targeted towards their audience.  They have a lot of great information there about their people and career opportunities.  For those of you interested in design opportunities, this is definitely a great place to get started!

Take care,

zoe

4 Comments

  • guess what? said:

    Look!





    Here is the same site





    directly off of one of Akamai's





    Edgesuite LINUX cache servers





    <a target="_new" href="http://www.microsoft.com.edgesuite.net/resources/design/">http://www.microsoft.com.edgesuite.net/resources/design/</a>

  • Alex said:

    Program Manger vs. Product Designer





    Very interesting site! How long has Microsoft had the position of Product Designer? I was under the impression that most UI design was handled by Program Managers during a project’s design phase. Has Microsoft shifted user interface design tasks like creating wire frame diagrams and paper prototyping away from the Program Manager position to the Product Design position? Which position primarily acts as an advocate for the user?





    <a target="_new" href="http://www.microsoft.com/careers/careerpath/technical/programmanagement.mspx">http://www.microsoft.com/careers/careerpath/technical/programmanagement.mspx</a> makes it sound like Product Design is a subset of Program Management. In particular, some of the statements don’t seem to mesh well:





    “Program Managers…knowledge of customers to design product features…”


    vs.


    “Program Manager leads the technical side of a product development team”





    The first sentence makes it sound like the ideal PM would have a background in human computer interaction, social anthropology, or cognitive science, while the second sentence suggests Program Managers deal primarily with the software engineering side of CS. Perhaps the ideal Program Manager would have a background in all of the above :)





    Let’s say a college student has been studying user interface design and human computer interaction, and is graduating from a program like the MIT Media Lab (<a target="_new" href="http://www.media.mit.edu/">http://www.media.mit.edu/</a>) or Carnegie Mellon’s HCI Institute (<a target="_new" href="http://www.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/">http://www.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/</a>). If they want to primarily focus on user interface design (acting as an advocate for the user and specifying features) should they apply to be a Program Manager or a Product Designer? Is Product Designer an entry level position?





    Thanks for any clarifications, and my apologies for violating the PM ability to “deal with ambiguity” :)





    -Alex

  • zoe said:

    Alex - these are really good questions and may warrant a quick post on the difference between a Program Manager and Product Designer.





    First though, Product Design has been at Microsoft for a very long time and it is NOT an entry level role. It has it's own requirements and career path. It is a completely different discipline then Program Management and not a subset of that positions.





    You should check out their site as well as <a target="_new" href="http://www.microsoft.com/careers/careerpath/technical/productdesign.mspx">http://www.microsoft.com/careers/careerpath/technical/productdesign.mspx</a> to get more information on the design position.





    Essentially, I see product design working on the look and feel whereas the Program Managers generally work on the guts of the product. Though, and I know this is confusing, sometimes Program Managers work on UI components of software.





    In the college example you gave above, I think these people could fall into the UI Program Manager space or the Usability Engineering area.





    I think most Product Designers at Microsoft have more of an industrial design, MFA or other artistic backgrounds with an emphasis on computer software (games, office etc..)





    Hope that helps!

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