Feb 25, 2011 14:05 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has been cooking an overhaul to its community self-help forums and is gearing up to unveil the new Microsoft Answers to the world this weekend. Part of the revamping is focused on the graphical user interface, a company representative told me.

Essentially, Microsoft Answers will feature a redesigned UI, certainly more user-friendly compared to the current design.

You can get a taste of Microsoft Answer’s new look via the screenshot at the top of this article. Unfortunately, this is all that the software giant has shared with me at this time, but it won’t be long until the revamped community self-help hub goes live and you’ll be able to experience the result of the overhaul for yourselves.

Changes have also been introduced under-the-hood of Microsoft Answers, as well as on the surface. The refreshed site is focused on increasing the speed at which customers receive answers to their questions, as well as ensuring that their issues are tackled in a relevant manner.

“Since first launching in 2008, Microsoft Answers has offered users a rich, interactive community self-help experience. The updated site has been built from the ground up with customer needs in mind,” a Microsoft spokesperson told me via email.

Microsoft Answers is an excellent destination to get help from the community of Microsoft users, as well as employees working for the Redmond giant.

The Microsoft spokesperson emphasized the following enhancements for the redesigned Microsoft Answers:

“• Robust search and navigation features allowing the user to get answers to their questions quickly and efficiently. Specifically, improved navigation and restructured Question and Answer pairs empowers users to easily search, find and resolve their questions.

• A new reputation model is being introduced, recognizing users for a variety of actions that further community health, such as authoring and identifying great content, helping to keep the community safe, and answering high priority questions.

• Users can now mark content as helpful, ensuring that users have the final say in what constitutes helpfulness or an answer to each question.”