Windows Phone 7 Will Maximize Your Life
So how does a company like Microsoft come up with all the nifty features that come with their products? By testing them on virtual consumers of course!
Meet Miles and Anna. A pair of 38-year olds who are happily married, with kids and are looking to enjoy the most out of their middle age lives by using Facebook and other services that are built into their mobile phones.
Microsoft’s guidelines are quite specific. Anna just cut down her hours as a PR professional in order to be with her kids instead of spending too much time commuting from Evanston to Chicago Illinois. Her hobbies involve taking photos of her son to send to her parents abroad who are staying in Europe.
Miles is an entrepreneur who is in the IT department of his company. The fictional couple is categorized as “lifestyle maximizers”. Joe Belfiore, the corporate VP for Windows Phone management says this at the Microsoft MIX 2010 Developers Conference:
“They care about their work e-mail, for example. Because they have jobs, they have money and are more likely to buy a more expensive phone and load it up with apps.”
The first of the three basic principles for the Windows Phone 7 design is that it is first and foremost concerned with the end user. This means that Microsoft will be responding to user needs for their apps instead of prioritizing mobile phone manufacturers or developers.
The second principle involves competing with Apple in terms of app availability and releasing “richer” apps. The last is concerned with standardization of Microsoft’s products. This is the reason for the restriction to only two screen sizes for Windows Phone 7 devices.
The “metro” user interface design that was on demo is totally on mark for the targeted users. Will this mean that we won’t see any Windows Phone 7 devices for the younger crowd? One thing is for sure, while Microsoft has a lot of promised plans, they still need to do a lot of catching up to do before they reach Apple’s popularity and accessibility to “life maximizers”.
Read more about Miles and Anna at Engadget.
