Comments on: Why isn’t Microsoft the Top UX Employer?

By: Jared Spool

Jared Spool — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:14:35 +0000

I wonder if Bill got Julie’s email, too?

By: mike atkinson

mike atkinson — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:24:41 +0000

looks like they didn’t choose you, jared. SO sorry…

http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/05/12/20/1840231.shtml?tid=109&tid=201&tid=227

heh

By: Dave Feldman

Dave Feldman — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 12:11:03 +0000

In response to Eddie James’s post: I would argue that while MS is indeed influential in UX, the user interface techniques it popularizes often originate elsewhere (for example, at Apple). Thus if I wanted to have a significant impact on global UX (including Microsoft UX), I might rather work for Apple.

By: Shawn Morrissey

Shawn Morrissey — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 19:31:39 +0000

Tekin — Great feedback, and I’ll send it over to the recruiting folks…

Interestingly enough, the same search (“user experience” in quotes) at the Apple.com/job sites returned 0 results as well. Yahoo shows 148 jobs for that search. Google shows 5 (all having “Software Engineer in Test” as the title?). IBM shows 0 results. Adobe shows 3 jobs. Macromedia doesn’t let you search for jobs.

By: Eddie James

Eddie James — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 13:58:33 +0000

When you really think about it, Microsoft should be on a shortlist of employers that UX people would kill to work for.

Yes, Microsoft’s products may be “bad” in some ways, but I can’t think of a more influential company in terms of how the world uses computers. Even a little bit of improvement to a “bad” but widely used application like Word, would have a huge impact on a large number of people.

Maybe it’s just me, but how my work will impact people plays a big role when I choose an employer. If I’m going to devote my work life to improving the user experience, I want to do it where I’ll do the most good.

And, no, I don’t work at Microsoft.

By: Tekin

Tekin — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 03:30:39 +0000

Maybe the biggest reason, you cannot find even ONE job posting related to "User Experience" Here's the Microsoft Career page. Search "User Experience" and look at the results.

By: Antonella

Antonella — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 02:17:38 +0000

I’ve never worked at Microsoft (although I have friends who work or have worked there) so I have an outsider perspective on the firm. But I guess this “perception” might be where the problem lies.

My perception is that Microsoft is too aggressive and competitive (internally, fostering competition among employess, and externally, eating and biting competitors) to be a good breeding ground for good User Experience. UX seems to grow and flourish better in a “do no harm” environment than in a world domination scheme.

Microsoft products have a lot of nice features and are very complex, but they are substantially not appealing and showcase surprisingly poor design decisions. For example, I can never get used to the inconsistencies and incompatibilities between products that are supposed to be integrated in a suite (Word, Powerpoint, Excel). And then there are interactive details that have never been fixed and continue to frustrate me, such as the miserable multitabbed preference windows in which the tabs move around any time you select one.

So, my perception is that there is just not enough love to create good, careful, and caring User Experiences.

By: Dave Feldman

Dave Feldman — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 01:33:42 +0000

Well, as an interaction designer I’d be leery of working at Microsoft. I did a programming internship there in college and am well aware that there are lots of intelligent, talented people there, and that they’re interested in UX and have been for some time. Yet most of the user interfaces that come out of MS don’t seem very good. So my assumption has been that some where between the (presumably) good UX people they have and the final product, something gets in the way. Regardless of what that something might be (marketing? more powerful parts of the organization with their own ideas? another of the usual suspects?), it doesn’t lead me to believe I would find doing UX for MS satisfying.

By: mike atkinson

mike atkinson — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 22:45:29 +0000

I’m sure you’d consider content to be a critical part of usability. (Like, duh.) ;^)

In that case, MS may be ahead of the curve than most organizations – at least according to Gerry McGovern:
http://gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2005/nt-2005-08-22-quality-content.htm

By: Shawn Morrissey

Shawn Morrissey — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 22:18:43 +0000

Those of us on the inside of the *original* evil empire would love to know what we need to change. There’s lots of small pockets around the campus who firmly believe the front of the screen should be treated as well as the kernel, which unfortunately isn’t necessarily the case right now…