14 DAY TRIAL // Even before being the central graphical and user interface theme of Windows 7, Aero was at the heart of Windows Vista’s GUI. However, not many users know that the moniker is, in fact, an acronym, even though it has been around for over three years now. According to Microsoft, the Windows Aero label comes from melting together four concepts, namely authentic, energetic, reflective, and open. It is not a coincidence that these words represent Microsoft’s vision of what Windows Aero should deliver in terms of user experience in Windows 7, and in Vista before it.
Song Zou, featured in the image at the top of this article, is a member of the Windows 7 Desktop Experience Team that worked closely on Windows Aero in Windows 7, including features such as Aero Shake, Aero Snap, and Aero Peek. Zou revealed that users had taken no time at all to warm up to Aero Shake, the feature that let customers “grab” a window and shake it in order to minimize all other opened items on the desktop. Similarly, continuing to shake the window will maximize all minimized windows.
“The new taskbar (team) had eight or nine developers and a similar number of testers working on it at the same time. Our feature team had a daily sync up meeting from 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. During the meeting, the developers, testers and project manager talked about where everyone was so we were in sync. I usually tried to do most of my coding before the daily meeting. Late in the afternoon, it was usually daily triage. The program manager, development, and test leads from the feature team tried to go through our incoming bugs for the day. Sometimes we got 300-plus bugs a day,” Zou added.
Microsoft has extensively tested the new Taskbar, dubbed Superbar, before actually deciding to integrate it in Windows 7. Zou revealed that the company built a fully functional prototype early on in the development process of Windows 7 and not only dogfooded it, but also allowed external customers to test drive it. Only after it received positive feedback did the Superbar qualify for Windows 7.
“The beta and release candidate program were also an incredibly useful way to get real-world feedback. For example, we were not sure if the taskbar should have the “Always combined, hide labels” option as a default (which meant only logos of programs pinned to the taskbar would appear, not labels or names of those programs). The beta program really put that doubt to rest, and that is now the Windows 7 taskbar default,” he noted.
Although the work on Windows 7 has been wrapped in July 2009, Zou is reluctant to talk about the next stage in the evolution of the Windows client. Following the release of Vista’s successor, Microsoft has shifted the focus on Windows 8, and, of course, Zou is on board, but he won’t confirm this aspect. “I love working in the user experience of Windows 7. I will continue working as a development lead for Windows user experience,” is all that Zou said.