14 DAY TRIAL // Top Windows Vista designer, Tjeerd Hoek, Design Director of Windows User Experience (UX), has ended his 13 years long marriage with Microsoft. Hoek's divorce from the Redmond Company adds yet another name to the long list of people that were involved in the development of Windows Vista and that have left following the operating system's availability. In this respect, Hoek steps on the path already taken by Jim Allchin, Former Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, Hillel Cooperman ex Microsoft design director that started Jackson Fish Market, where he was joined by Jenny Lam User Experience Designer. Tjeerd has headed over at Frog Design, an industrial design company, where he will take on the role of Executive Creative Director.
"You can't invest huge amounts of effort and resources in product quality aspects like robustness, reliability, performance, and functionality, and then not reflect those same qualities in the way people experience the product," Tjeerd Hoek is quoted as saying on the Microsoft Design website while focusing on Windows Vista, "It's important to us that beyond utility, there is an emotional connection, such that people feel great about using Windows, and they feel Windows reflects them in a positive and authentic way."
Hoek has graduated Cum Laude with a master's degree in industrial design engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, back in 1992, and has been working with Microsoft since 1994. With the Redmond Company, Hoek did not focus exclusively on Windows, but also on products such as Office and MSN. On the Microsoft Design website, Hoek also revealed how the company's perspective over customer experience evolved since the past century. Still out of all the products over at Microsoft, Tjeerd seemed to be most close to the operating system, as in his view "Windows, is (the) critical infrastructure for the world."
"Ten years ago, you didn't hear vice presidents talk about user experience," explained Tjeerd. "There was little ownership of the product interaction and functional user interface design in the hands of designers. Product plans used to be written specifications and no one could really predict what everyone else imagined the product to be-that's where design came in: we could bring a form to the many ideas, requirements, specifications, and opinions, which gave everyone a way to talk about the same thing and see a holistic solution. This at the same time enabled us to take more ownership over both the functional aspects and the interface design of the product."