LiveSide - News blog : Graphics

A birthday surprise from Windows Live

damaster — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:40:39 GMT

Disclaimer: If you want to keep it as a surprise, we recommend you to not read this post, as it might spoil the surprise for you on your birthday.
In today’s Windows Live Wire blog post about the new Wave 3 web experience, we picked up something special that we didn’t cover last time when we talked about the dynamic themes in the new Windows Live headers. Here’s the hints Allison O’Mahony, lead program manager on the Windows Live Customer Experience team, gave in her blog post:

Themes - New themes allow you to customize your experience throughout Windows Live. Click Options and then click More themes to choose from twelve standard themes that apply different designs to the header. You can also choose from several dynamic themes, which change their design based on the time of day and weather conditions—some of them even offer a special birthday surprise.

Daily weather and other notifications - At the top of the home page is a new notifications area designed to help you keep on top of your day. There you’ll find today’s date and weather conditions in your location, as well as notifications of new private messages, network invitations, and the next event on your calendar. During special events such as your birthday you may see a personal message here too.

Let us show you what she meant. Of the six dynamic themes currently available, four of them – Daisy Hill, Tugboat, Robots and Sports, changes according to the weather in your location. Little did we know that these four themes gives you a nice little surprise on the day of your birthday! Here’s what the Daisy Hill one looks like, on the day of your birthday (we’ll save the other three for your birthday):

The Windows Live Home header will also greet you with a special message! And because the header is shown for the entire day without changing, the weather information is displayed as an icon instead. You can see this in the screenshot below:

To our surprise, even Windows Live Account will greet you with a special birthday message! (Sorry, my birthday is not today. But I wouldn’t mind receiving some early birthday gifts =) )

For those of you who may be concerned about others knowing your birth date, don’t worry. This special header will only appear in your own views – when others are viewing your Profile (including those in your Network), they will only see the standard header like the ones you’d see every other day. So it is made especially for you only.

Microsoft has really put some thoughts in designing the new Wave 3 theme, making it as personalised as possible, such that customers feel "special” when using their services. The Windows Live Customer Experience team have done a really good job this time, well done!

A look at the Dynamic Themes in Windows Live Wave 3

damaster — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:33:09 GMT

Over at The Space Craft blog the Windows Live Spaces team had written up an overview of the upcoming Windows Live Profile, and of course here at LiveSide we’ve covered that long before they did. However what is interesting about this post is that it is one of the first posts from Microsoft that talked about the dynamic themes coming in Windows Live (of course, we briefly told you about that ages ago as well). Here’s what they have described:

The top of the profile will highlight your theme…Many of the new Windows Live themes (like the one shown below) will be dynamic, reflecting the time of the day and the weather in your current location. You can see that it’s kind of cloudy and gloomy in Seattle right now, but it’s not raining!

We’ll take a more in depth look at this. For those of us who had been using the current Windows Live Home (http://home.live.com), you may have already seen how the colour of the page changes depending whether it’s day or night at the location you’ve set. Similarly, in Wave 3 you’re able to set your location in Windows Live Home:

If you’ve chosen one of the Dynamic Themes (in the private beta, only four dynamic themes were available: Daisy Hill, Tugboat, Prairie, and Desert, it is expected that when released there’ll be dozens more themes available), Windows Live will automatically get the weather information in your location. The time zone settings are also set in your Windows Live Account and used to determine the time of day it is at your location. These two parameters combined will determine what is shown in the headers of your Windows Live services (and also what others will see for your very own Windows Live Profile) – but of course, your Spaces, Groups and Events will allow you to choose a different theme for each of them.

To be exact, the dynamic themes don’t change by the second in your time zone, they’re only changed every four hours. Weather information also only covers certain conditions, such as Clear, Cloudy, Rain, Snow, Windy, Hail and Thunder. The image below shows the different headers displayed during the time of the day (from top to bottom: Midnight, 4am, 8am, 12noon, 4pm, 8pm) and also of the different weather conditions (note that Windy, Hail and Thunder only have a day and night header, instead of changing every four hours). The sample is from the theme “Daisy Hill”.

This image may take a while to load on slower internet connections, the image is about 2.5MB.

It is great to see Microsoft is actually spending time and effort in creating these themes – every variation of them. We’ve seen in the one of the Messenger video that the team had listened to your feedbacks about the current themes in the Wave 3 beta and had created a dozens more themes (or scenes) for you. This is great effort guys – well done Microsoft!

Windows Live Wave 3: New Header UI

Chris — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:06:00 GMT

As the 2nd part in our Windows Live Wave 3 series, we’re taking a look at the new header UI that Microsoft is working on. It was almost exactly a year ago that we started talking about the Wave 2 UI, which saw the removal of the Flair. This next change is just as noticeable.

Key changes include:

- No orb: Windows Live is seemingly following the MSN approach, providing links to the key services and then a drop down menu with the other services on offer. This should make it easier for users to discover the less main-stream services.

- Customisable background: Users can choose from a range of standard backgrounds to appear across the Windows Live sites, but we’re also hearing that users can use a custom background too.

- Search: The box is less intrusive, blending in with the background. Also of note is the removal of the ugly green button, which goes a long way to making this design much more aesthetically pleasing.

- No product names: In an attempt to seemingly clean up the branding issues once and for all, Microsoft is making the product names less obvious. Instead products are referred to by a basic, self-explanatory name, Files instead of Skydrive, for example. That’s not to say the product names are necessarily being cut, but this simplification is a move which is long overdue.

The new header also shows the approach to some of the Wave 3 social networking services. A focus on the user’s own profile for example, something which Microsoft has languished behind on as other social networking sites developed. Then there is the absence of Spaces in the header, instead being replaced by two separate aspects of the product, People (or Friends?), and Photos. More focus here perhaps?

The problem with Microsoft developing the Windows Live UI over the past few years has been the lack of consistency, something Kip highlighted recently about Live Search. For example, Windows Live Favorites and My.Live.com are both still running the Wave 1 UI, with this being due to a lack of product updates over the past year. Now that Microsoft is shutting down some of the unnecessary products (eg Expo, also running the Wave 1 UI), this will hopefully help improve the situation.

Disclaimer: This is just the current M1 (Milestone 1) UI, and may change before public release

The death of Flair? Windows Live's new look

Harrison Hoffman — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:50:00 GMT

The "Flair" user interface (seen above) has become a familiar sight for the users of Windows Live products and services. It has become the standard look for any of Windows Live's websites or applications. Flair has been widely adopted throughout the Windows Live network since around last summer, although the UI concept was introduced on some sites prior to that. Despite being an excellent and recognizeable interface, we will likely be seeing the death of Flair in the near future.

The coming months will bring a complete visual revamp of both Windows Live websites and applications. This has already become apparently in the past couple of weeks with the release of the beta versions of Messenger 8.5, Mail, and Writer. Here are some examples of what changes we can expect to see. Most of these you have seen already, but we have a never before seen preview of the new Windows Live web UI.

Windows Live Header

This is the probable design for the new standard UI throughout Windows Live websites after the change.

Before:

After: (Click to Enlarge)

This possible new UI header design takes up a little less real estate vertically than its Flair predecessor, leaving some more room for content underneath. It also provides some quick links to other Windows Live services in addition to the "Orb Menu" on the left. I also included the contents of the new Orb Menu, which has a few entries that you might find interesting. Since this search bar will, presumably, be present on all of the new Windows Live sites, I think that we can assume that it will react differently to the content on the page. For example, if you are in Mail, it will search your mail, if you are in Expo, it will search listings.

Windows Live Messenger

Before:

After:

As you can see, the Flair has been removed from the top of the contact list and has been replaced with the new UI. Other than that, there is not a whole lot to talk about in regards to the UI upgrade in Messenger.

Windows Live Mail

Before:

After:

The new Windows Live Mail application looks very similar to the Windows Live Mail desktop Beta. Obviously, the header displays the new UI feel.

Windows Live Writer

Before:

After:

Writer has probably seen the most dramatic change from its original version. The new look is now much more consistent with the rest of Windows Live.

Although I cannot give an exact timeframe for when this new look will be rolled out completely throughout Windows Live, we are clearly already seeing it start to pop up in certain forms.

More info on Windows Live Mail (the desktop client)

Chris — Tue, 08 May 2007 03:30:00 GMT

In case you missed it during the Windows Live Hotmail announcement, the press release contained a brief sentence relating to the Windows Live desktop email client, now just called Windows Live Mail - "Windows Live Mail, a free consumer e-mail client that will be the successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail on Windows Vista".

Nothing is ever simple with Windows Live, and the latest naming / product change to Windows Live Mail is another fine example. Why you would ever reuse a name that was used by a different yet similar product for the previous 15 months we're not quite so sure. Here's an attempt to try and address some of the confusion that's already showing. Our questions and the responses we got back are below.

Q: Will Windows Live Mail overwrite Windows Mail on Windows Vista? How about Outlook Express on XP SP2?
A: Windows Live Mail will not overwrite or remove Windows Mail or Outlook Express. Instead, it will be the successor and superset of the existing free clients, changing the entry points (so things like shortcuts replaced).

Q: What does this mean for Windows Mail support in Windows Vista SP1 and beyond?
A: Windows Mail and Outlook Express will continue to be supported as they are today (including bug fixes) while at the same time new innovation and future investment are made to Windows Live Mail.

Q: Will Windows Live Mail have ads?
A: While there won't be graphical ads, we will continue to test Active Search in the US, but users will have the option to disable it/turn it off and on.

As a Hotmail Plus subscriber I'm not sure how I feel about the lack of ads in Windows Live Mail. While its definitely good for the user, the latest financial figures show that MSN/Windows Live is struggling to break even. With Windows Live Mail potentially putting the user experience over monetisation, it'll be interesting to see how this is reflected in other desktop applications such as Windows Live Messenger. Messenger has always displayed ads to premium subscribers, this move will give them renewed pressure to change this policy.

The new Windows Live Mail (client) support blog is available at http://wlmailclient.spaces.live.com/ and they have helpfully quantifed the timeframe until the next beta build - the end of May. Here's a sneak peek at part of the new wave 2 UI we're expecting to see (remember details can change). A more complete feature list is under discussion here.

Live Mail gets update to M8

Chris — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 03:51:00 GMT

Today's Live Mail update features numerous UI and userability enhancements, but currently is only available to users on selected server bays. The update also includes:

“Send Email As” feature that allows users to send mail from other email addresses.
More contact viewing options
A contacts importer

Some of you may remember that the previous updates have not been the smoothest, so now they will be rolling out the new features to all users over several weeks.

Pictures tell a thousand words, so check out the update for yourself. As always, if you want to experience the update yourself, you can change the url of your Live Mail account to use bay 117 (http://by117w.bay117.mail.live.com). One thing I've noticed for free accounts is that the Flare header is slightly obscured due to the banner advertising, something you probably won't see in the PR or marketing pictures when Mail finally launches.

Screenshots (Click to enlarge):

Windows Live Mail Desktop gets new UI

Chris — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 07:10:00 GMT

As the Windows Live Mail Desktop Team inches closer to the next beta stage, they've decided to reveal plans for changing the UI in the new email application. Windows Live Mail Desktop will adopt the same UI coming with the new Messenger Beta Refresh...(read more)

Windows Live ID upgrade - New UI and more

Chris — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 23:57:00 GMT

The rollout of Windows Live ID continues, this time with the new sign-in UI. From the Live ID blog : Today we are rolling out a new sign-in experience for Windows Live sites like Live.com, Ideas, Mail, Expo, Favorites and Custom Domains. This is the next...(read more)

Windows Live graphics

Chris — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:00:00 GMT

Several people have been asking about the graphic branding Microsoft plans to use for its Windows Live services. While everything is still in beta and subject to change, we cannot be certain how it will end up, but here's how we understand it at the...(read more)

More Messenger updates

Chris — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 10:03:00 GMT

After Brandon posted a few of the updates we can expect to see in the Messenger refresh, Michael Sun went and posted some screenshots of the currently internal only, April refresh build 683. Two extra things worth noting: - Firstly the installer now mentions...(read more)

Windows Live Messenger Final - Sneak Peek

Chris — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Yes I'm posting yet another screenshot, this time of the expected Windows Live Messenger final UI. - Yes the UI looks must better, no bleaching! - Note the new status icons, a cross between old and new. - The two new icons at the top of the contact...(read more)