Microsoft Power Users, Part I

This was my first WinHEC, and I definitely appreciated being invited to certain insider events. It's a great chance to catch up with old friends and meet a few new ones (including those who operate some of my favorite Web resources). I walked away with a 64-bit starter kit of sorts, leaving me with a desire to build a complete 64-bit machine and document the entire experience in video.
WinHEC is a developer's conference, with 2005's event focusing largely on 64-bit computing and the next Windows OS (which will come in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors on the same install disc). The sessions are pretty technical for a reason – this is a very technical audience. As an enthusiast, I was happy to be here. As a Windows user, I was somewhat underwhelmed and overly concerned.
Microsoft's mantra is: “We develop platforms.” That's great, so long as you're a developer. And we've all seen the FANTASTIC products that OEMs create for us to consume, even though 99% of 'em suck. Why? Because, we've got a platform and a set of developers. Isn't the circle complete? No, there's another part. Think about it for a second. You've got the platform, people developing for that platform, now… what about the end user?!
We get ignored, time and time again.
The features we want, we need, we crave – largely ignored if the developer doesn't see the need to do it. So, where do we turn? Who do we turn to? When is somebody going to start listening to power users instead of FOCUS GROUPS?! We're not even in the equation (platform + developers = stuff).
To make matters worse, let me remind you that a developer is not a designer. As such, most of 'em birth user interfaces that are anything but user friendly / elegant. Oh, a program may have functionality out the wazoo, but if it looks like it was assembled by a hungover chimpanzee, nobody really feels compelled to use it. And I fear that it's going to get worse with XAML. When was the last time you visited a Web page that looked like it was slapped together in less than two seconds? Probably by someone who had no design skills, who overused Flash and JavaScript and every other cutesy / froo-froo element they could think of to make your eXPerience “complete.” Yeah, well… it's coming directly to the Windows platform, courtesy of software developers who aren't design experts.
Microsoft should be fostering eXPeriences instead of just developing platforms.
Continued in Part II.

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