Bill Buxton, a designer that's mostly known for this work in human-machine interfaces has been recently picked up by Microsoft Research. He will hold the title of 'senior researcher' at Microsoft Corp.

Monday, Buxton said that growing number of handheld devices and embedded processors in cars and other items poses new design challenges and in the near future, a person's watch, cell phone, car and shop window could all exchange information.

He added, "In the best of worlds, this society of devices starts to complement one other and in their collective selves, let's say, reduce the overall complexity that confronts you and me." Buxton also said, "My sense is that Microsoft is in transition from an engineering-led company to...a design-led company," he said. "There are more designers at Microsoft on any single team as there were, not too long ago, in the entire company. It's a wonderful change."

Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, said that Buxton will manage the man-machine product design. "His pioneering work in human-computer interaction, computer graphics and technology consulting will not only enhance ongoing projects at our Microsoft Research labs, but also inspire exciting, new ideas," he said.

Microsoft has really been pushing expansion recently and this is a definite example of their recent full scale attackon the market.