Windows 7 Layout Ideas

[Ian]

Tech Radar have a fascinating article on the layouts we almost had in Windows 7, by showing us some of the concepts in the design stage:

Back in 2007 the Windows team started working on the look of Windows 7. Usually Microsoft doesn't reveal any of the preliminary designs for its operating systems, but at the recent MIX user experience conference we got a sneak peek behind the scenes at the development process. The Windows desktop team displayed several of their early designs and explained what they learned from them as part of the conference's theme on how important it is for designers to sketch out different ideas.

Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, explained that he used to have a gallery of designs for the Office Assistant on his office wall to help inspire the Windows 7 team. They weren't afraid to start with what Senior Use Experience Designer Stephan Hoefnagels called "crazy ideas": everything from a lava lamp to a flower that opened and closed helped to create the look and feel of Windows

Read more and see the images here.

 

[juggernaut]

The bat signal feature looked good, is there a way to reactivate that?

"The next prototype, in February 2007, was called the Bat Signal; when you moved your mouse over an icon in the taskbar, the full window would pop up on screen, highlighted by beams of light (a little like the Batman signal projected over Gotham City)."