The Microsoft BUILD Conference kicked off last week (13^th of September) in Anaheim California with some very specific goals to be delivered from Microsoft.

The last few months have seen a lot of speculation, a lot of anger and a lot of hope all wrapped into one cosmos of conflicting geek point of view. Not only were the development communities involved in such speculation, but also commercial folks who felt kind of shaky with what has been an unprecedented era of secrecy from the not so secret big blue ship.

What did and didn't make the cut for the next release of Windows - Windows 8? What would the OS do for consumers and enterprise customers - separately and jointly? How would it run on a slate or tablet type device? Can the tile metaphor work on scale?

So many questions had to be answered, and for the most part I think they were, or at the very least a direction was given that allowed people to understand how some questions should be answered.

And the curtains were raised.

The initial keynote session was meant to set the scene for the rest of the week - the announcement and large scale display of Windows 8 for the first time in the wild, along with the frameworks that have been developed to support it, but in truth, the keynote was probably only marginally successful; it was far from a polished display. It was almost as if they (MSFT) knew that they had to get the answers out fast, and at times the presenters stumbled in their eagerness to push as much information out as possible. Steven Sinofsky was quite smooth in his delivery, but was let down badly by Julie Larson-Green who at times forgot she had a microphone on. Amateur hour to be sure.

Steven Sinofsky showed his metal though and kept the engagement alive, enough for me to believe that he will eventually take the place of Steve Balmer as Microsoft CEO.

Jensen Harris – Mr Windows 8.

It wasn't until Jensen Harris took to the stage after lunch for the first of the "Big Picture" keynotes that the nerves settled and the hustle and bustle, almost erratic pace to get the message out by the morning keynote, was replaced by a considered, well thought out and extremely well-rehearsed display. What was particularly pleasing was to see this first open conversation was more about the design requirements of the new platform and Metro Style extensions rather than some obscure deep dive into a code first world that has no user experience considerations and in Jensen's own words - yields nothing but "crap".

Sure some of Jensen's demos failed, but he recovered with seasoned grace and professionalism, comedic a lot of the time - there was no doubt that he "owns" Windows 8.

The Samsung Windows 8 tablet.

The excitement of the day was truly felt by all the attendees, not least due to the fact that Steven Sinofsky had mentioned earlier in the day that everyone would be getting a Samsung Tablet with a developer preview build of Windows 8 on it - including all the tools to get on with learning how to deliver for it as well. That ensured a lot of people's attention span was going to be longer than a gold fish, well for at the very least on the Tuesday.

One of the conference buzz-words (and there were many) was "re-imagination". I have to say that the level of demonstrations shown (the ones that worked) were a fantastic level of entry to do just that - allow people to re-imagine what they could do with Windows, working with the Metro platform.

In terms of the Tablet, Samsung as you would expect, has delivered a really sweet bit of kit. I've not had it long enough to know if I would pay for it myself, but the early stages look pretty amazing to be honest.

I come from the old school of device usage, where a desktop is what feels the most natural to me and I have struggled for a very long time to get used to working with a Laptop, a mobile device and all the connections in between that. It's not that I don't use these all on a day to day basis, but I am clarifying that I am not at my most comfortable when trying to respond to long emails or indeed try and compose a blog post like this.

I am writing this post on the new Tablet, and what better way to understand if something is going to work for me, then by putting myself in a position where I have no choice in what I am going to use. I am traveling at the moment between LA and San Francisco, and so I have decided to make the Tablet my only device for the next few weeks to really get a feel for Windows 8 and to know if it is going to work for me.

Is Windows 8 working for me?

So far – so good. Well better than that to be honest, this little thing is rocking my world in the geeky sense.

I have the Bluetooth keyboard connected and I am typing away like I am on fire and when I am taking that break, I just grab the tablet and go and sit and use the device in a very natural setting. Maybe this is the time that I will now change how I am working, because the device, the polymorphic usages that have been designed into it and the OS, are really making me feel like technology is starting to work the way that I want it to.

I guess the other penny I am waiting to drop is for the OS to start crashing badly, all the time. It just hasn't happened yet which is probably leading me into a false sense of security. Experience tells me that at just the most inopportune time, this will surely kill off all my work and not let me do anything about it. I can't complain can I - there is that giant caveat in place - developer preview.

So all good things to report so far - most impressive is the start up times and even at this stage, the smooth as butter transitions and ease of use to navigate around the operating system and supplied applications.

WinRT and all the secret sauce parts.

I've been through a number of platform changes and historic Microsoft deviations in my time. That experience tells me that I still have no real view as to what jiggery-pokery has been embedded to make all the magic work.

WinRT as a concept is a very sound one and by its implementation, it ensures that all language adaptions created for use with Windows in future will yield the same performance runtime on the OS. To clarify what that means, you need to understand that there is no .Net layer to WinRT, so theoretically, regardless of how you create the applications (in terms of language) the results will be the same in performance and experience. I've heard that before as well, so let's just wait and see.

The direction change.

This week was more than just about the OS and the tools, it was about the directional change that Microsoft has needed to make in order to start challenging the likes of iOS and Android on devices and tablets.

Microsoft have done very well to create a unique and impressive solution that copies from no other, something they were constantly accused of doing in the past. Metro will be a success which is different than saying that Windows 8 will be a success to be sure, but with over 500,000 downloads in the first 24 hours, some people in Redmond must be rubbing their hands together and patting themselves on the back at the moment.

For me it means a new iteration of the Expression Blend book to show how to use the new tooling features and a few other projects can also now be exposed and tested.

All in all, I am happy with what has come out, and I think given a good look, most others will be also.

On September 13^th in Anaheim California, Microsoft is set to unveil the tooling ecosystem for designers and developers wanting to work with the new "Windows8" touch-centric user experience and I believe there could be a possible naming of Metro as a new development platform - not just a UI/UX design paradigm.

The event certainly has some hype surrounding it and oddly enough, Microsoft appear to have been able to keep some pretty good secrets this year surrounding what will and won't be shown.

So what will be shown?

For the most part, the show will be about HTML5 and JavaScript and how IE10 has access to the power of the PC - not just in hardware acceleration terms. You can expect to also see a lot of touch based experiences from the web, which traditionally hasn't been there. Sure you had some touch experiences on devices that interacted with web sites, but I think you will see an all-out push from Microsoft to get people to design touch experiences specifically from the web and in order to do that, they need to sell everyone the framework to enable it as well as an amazing tooling experience to execute the designs with.

Expression Web - all growed [sic] up!

Expression Web will also be a big part of the event (tying in the IE on Desktop + Tab - maybe phone?.. maybe not), and I would expect to see a consolidated JavaScript story woven into the tool in terms of libraries as well. It would be wrong to call Expression Web the bastard of the Expression family (I think Expression Design has that as a working title?) but the attention hasn't been on the tool for quite some time and now it would appear to be ready to shine, given the current trajectories of the HTML5 family of technologies.

Yes the geek comes out in me here just a little. I used Dreamweaver CS5.5 over the weekend on a HTML5 project I am working on, and to be honest, it was sort of like the first time you attend church naked - slightly uncomfortable and you feel a little dirty? it touches you in all the wrong places.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can get it right and deliver a tool that finally gets some broad market penetration, though it will need some pretty tight Visual Studio integration I think in order to achieve that.

Tablet Metro UI

I also think the silent surprise will be the showing off of the Metro UI running on Tablet. It should be a similar experience to that of the desktop as you would expect, but consider a combination between the desktop and the tablet and how visual signposting will play a huge role in the effectiveness of the tile systems that Metro employs across all devices.

I am also not sure if a file system will be exposed on the Tablet. It has made sense in a large part on the phone (not to show it), and the thinking I have been doing points to an effective use of a storage solution without file management really needed. The Metro platform appears to enable the user to select images and files with a completely new navigation experience so this could be interesting and certainly the basis of what would allow broad application sharing - think pushing an image from anywhere straight into a social network feed etc.

Almost everyone who has touched some development on a tablet to date (excluding iPad) will agree that the performance has been utterly shyte. At the end of the day, I hold my breath for this part of the story - after all, it doesn't matter how pretty the UI, how nice a swipe feels, if the solution runs like Molly the three legged pony, on the device, it simply will be rejected outright (even though Molly wasn't - see below).

Considering the Tablet will most likely become the corner stone of the device focus for Microsoft in the consumer space (x-box withstanding) they really need the manufactures to pull out all the good bits for this launch.

What if it tanks?

Well? wouldn't be the first time Microsoft have taken what would in hindsight be viewed as a "monumental failure in direction" and in all honesty I don't think this will be. I think this will be a big sweeping change and maturity to some very long ago considered concepts that in reality were never executed correctly.

The Agenda is written here:

Clearly not put together by a Polymath? but keeps in line with the "no details" policy.

I hope to see some of you folks there!

Planning for the future

Here at Splendid we started a few years ago working with clients to jointly understand the long term feature sets that Microsoft and Google were aiming to develop and release to consumers and enterprise organisations.

Early on, this was based around the 3 screens and the cloud concept, which in all truth was premature in its marketing (considering that MSFT had made it as difficult as possible to realise that scenario, given the technology placement at the time. Also, Google were not very clear on their direction as always either) but it was enough for us to view cloud based solutions as a connector to all the provisions that we could see developing. So, not necessarily using Cloud as a deployment platform for solutions, but more about the level of profile sharing that could be delivered into devices and the solutions rolled out to each of them.

Regardless, we worked to create concepts that showed the possibility of multi-device experiences that could touch upon a user's journey in various scenarios primarily using technology such as WPF, Silverlight, Surface, Mobile Phones, Tablets and Web solutions.

It's tough to make some of those calls so far out, but that is what it's all about in today's marketplace and already we are looking a few years ahead to work through what we think will have the biggest impacts and benefits to our customers in those times, so the cycle of preparation doesn't stop.

It's all about timing.

Thankfully, several of our larger clients worked hard to implement the services required to deliver those concepts (some have taken a number of years) but now we see that those clients are ready and willing to push hard into this future and I predict a number of solutions in the next year that will really take hold of the multi-device experience and start delivering on the goals.

I have to really give Microsoft some credit here, because it is in this area that Microsoft really sees the big picture compared to any of the other tech giants. Microsoft funds proof-of-concepts (POCs) in these early stages and although a lot of this is about generating evidence of a feature use in a new product or service, it's also about Microsoft preparing large scale enterprises for what is coming.

These larger clients, can't (and certainly don't) turn on a dime and without this POC proposition from Microsoft, and without these endeavours many of the larger clients would be coming to a halt in terms of their infrastructure improvement and efficiency gains that they expect to keep making year on year.

Splendid sitting in the sweet spot!

I guess when you combine that forethought and the fact that we at Splendid started on the HTML5 route early, you can see why we are so excited about what is coming with "Windows 8". Already we are engaging with product groups and teams inside of Microsoft, along with our clients to prepare for the coming year.

Splendid is perfectly placed to deliver these concepts now as internally we have worked hard to build a development team capable of working across the technology stacks with dedicated HTML5, Application, Phone and Web teams all working within a structured process to bring design and exceptional experiences across the greater technology platforms.

Marketing has been slow to catch up!

Traditionally, most IT related solutions were drip fed through an organisation via the IT team as fundamentally it was viewed that they would be best placed to enable data support and functional systems support into the business. What we have seen slowly occurring over the past two years especially is a greater concentration of marketing based project acquisition, as more and more, the concepts of marketing, product placement, brand loyalty and technology association play an increasingly important role in digital interaction.

If only they had a more realistic view as to the cost of designing and developing digital solutions (as opposed to just digital content) the software creation industry as a whole would be picking up at an even faster pace.

What causes such unrealistic views of software cost?

It's fair to say that Apple and Facebook were most likely the driving force behind the increased interest and take up of digital interactive marketing. The iPhone especially ramped up extremely fast and along with it came an enormous group of designers and developers that were willing to build solutions (applications) just for the experience and the exposure. Inevitably, you always get a significant discount effect with that market entry.

Consequentially when marketing departments then look to increase their spend and their exposure across all their web properties, mobile solutions and potentially even into core production they are soon surprised by the cost of having to work with established companies that have overheads, support costs and governance costs that were not originally part of the small solution creation cycle.

The only answer to this issue is education and the larger players in the market have their fair share of responsibility in delivering that message. Micro-site doesn't translate to micro-budget.

The price is only going to go up.

Moving forward to "Windows8", the thing to watch for is that the enterprise is aware of the increased cost to develop for multi-device solutions. It simply won't be a case of build once and run it on everything, regardless of what message is promoted - sure the solutions that run across this platform table could/should use the same services to provide data, but the experiences will all need to be individualised in order to maximise the loyalty. No longer will the user accept a great mobile solution but a rubbish web one; they will expect an exceptional experience across all.

Good experiences cost money to build. Award winning experiences cost even more.

The excitement level goes up as well!

As features and functions of both software and devices increase, the excitement and "fun" factor increases as well. The greater the fun, the greater the loyalty and subsequent viral spread of a solution, be it web or tablet or phone or x-box or…

A lot of the work we do at Splendid is around that concept of making things fun and enjoyable - even the most serious of challenges can in some way give inspiration of coolness, which in itself is fun. Sometimes our clients are very conservative (and don't hide that fact), but even they recognise that "enjoyment" plays a large role in the success of their solution. Enjoyment doesn't have to be purely interactive, it is sometimes in the form of appreciation - attention to detail, beauty and aesthetics or even just caring about the little things.

With what we know is coming, the cool geeky things that generate feelings of excitement and fun are only going to be amplified, along with the ability to add designed, beautiful experiences.

I can't wait until we can show and talk about those some more!

On the 2nd of June, Microsoft President of Windows, Steven Sinofsky let the cat out of the bag and showed the world the first glimpses (technically I think we can call it a Prototype) of the next version of the Windows UI/UX - still being referred to as a codename of Windows8. I haven't said new OS here, as my understanding is that the kernel has not been rebuilt, just had more tweaks applied.

It didn't take long for the following video to make its way up on to YouTube from the Microsoft team directly.

Why do this sneak peak now?

Microsoft some say, was spooked into getting "it" out there. They certainly want it to be known that they are the ones that are innovating on the desktop, as well as into the tablet and phone markets and the hope is that with a revamped tooling solution for design and development communities, what is announced at the BUILD event in September of this year, will be enough to bring communities back to Microsoft, and allow avid providers of the other two major platforms provided by Apple and Google, to leverage some of their skills with a new truly cross channel marketplace.

Rumour has been flying for quite some time as to the possibilities of a showing of the new UI, and for most of us, the smart money has been on it containing an integrated HTML5 based desktop. Internet Explorer 10 built directly into the OS (gets around those pesky anti-competitive parts) and for those that join dots with the Microsoft messaging that comes out of Redmond, you will be starting to read into the reasons why IE10 was shown at MIX11 with a strong push by the collective messaging for people to begin to adopt HTML5 and related technologies.

Another rumour is now starting to build. And this one is around what Apple will do in response to this.

My money has been on Apple revamping its entire UI/UX solution for iPhone/iPad for some time now, as the hardware is where it is at - beautiful and loyally craved by fans (and rightfully so), but even the most hardened Apple fan will admit that the UI/UX is perhaps the poorest offering on the market.

The solutions provided to the Apple marketplace are undoubtedly the leading choice, but it says something when the manufacture of the platform makes the rest of the experience feel like you're crowning after a large sitting of spicy food - confidence is lost, and you start to perspire.

So whether it is to secure the "we got here first" scenario, or as a primer to bring the development communities back to Microsoft, the sneak peak was a strategic move in order to build moment for a launch.

Microsoft can't act like Apple in these scenarios (or many other to be honest), in terms that they can't keep it a secret, to release onto the world on one day.

Unfortunately, Microsoft customers are big businesses and governments (people playing with real money and real peoples lives), so keeping confidence with those folks, ensuring they are explained how backward compatibility will work for them, is key to Microsoft maintaining its grip on the install base.

Was Metro really a surprise?

Metro runs on Windows Phone 7, and is a very well received experience. The new Mango updates are also pleasing and the design team are showing that they are learning by usage habits, iterating and changing the UX to better assist the user. Metro lends itself very well to this with its minimalist style.

Metro was also pushed out by the Surface team as the UI/UX of choice, which makes sense for development based businesses to use Metro on a Surface and to create similar experiences for all their customers. Why you probably wouldn't want to do that, is another post that I may write shortly - but Metro works (if not a little boringly) on Surface2 also, when applied against the guidelines.

So when you see Metro used on a very small screen such as a phone, and then ported successfully onto a much larger touch based solution such as Surface2, it doesn't take long to join the dots and understand how Metro could work on a PC desktop and or a tablet based device.

Metro works, and it will work very well for "Windows 8" across all devices. The familiarity between all the devices at work, home, on the move and in large spaces will become much greater; along with the everlasting push into the lounge room with the potential for the X-Box to be the next target for Metro, once the Microsoft Media deals are worked out and ready to roll (project Ventura).

The marketing was still poorly executed.

Oh… the marketing folks in Redmond. It feels like they can never get it right. Maybe they are the scape goats, and really its senior management that make the decisions that to the rest of the people working with Microsoft think are ridiculous?

The problem is that rarely does the partner community of Microsoft take into consideration the reasons behind such announcements in a global sense and from a strategic point of view.

Take the developer community as an example:

Developers are now screaming, because they didn't hear the words "Silverlight", "WPF" or anything other than "HTML5 and JavaScript".

Truth be told, they will need to wait until BUILD to get those answers. Marketing and messaging folks could have handled that news delivery better to those folks, to stop them speculating that the world is coming to an end.

Take ISV's (independent Software Vendors) as another example:

Inevitably, Microsoft shows the new UI running their own solutions such as Excel (which we would be surprised if that was never going to work), but they have done nothing to ease the anxiety of the millions of ISV's out there.

These ISV's that have collectively invested crazy amounts of time and money into their solution developments - and they will eventually be given their spoon of honey. But at the moment, they are shitting broken glass, because once again the messaging folks couldn't get it together in time to inform these folks.

How could they get the message out more positively and build better conversations?

Microsoft in most countries could have really made a day of this announcement, by getting the partners together into a large conference hall and showing the interview live (or recorded) followed up with constructed messaging to each of the major groups that will be effected.

Microsoft love the concept of people having conversations about. er.. Microsoft.

They think that by releasing this video and showing off some upper thigh, that enough conversation points will generate interest in what they are doing. Not all of those conversations are nice conversations though without the proper construct, and generally, unless you can seed a conversation with primary points at the beginning, rarely does it end the way you want it too; quickly you lose control over rampant speculation.

This is exactly what is happening at the moment.