Microsoft's redesigns – going the right way

Well, I know that when you hear Microsoft, you don’t think immediately at design. Why? Because they are one of the biggest software producers world wide. And so far, their accent was on products and features and less on direct image.

It seems like in the past year, the design of their websites has changed. And the good thing is that it has now new and balanced design lines. And here I’m not talking about the design style from Microsoft Windows Vista, I’m talking about clean and new approach. The designs have distinct elements and they don’t have the same appearance, which is a plus. Also the websites have a div approach rather than table – also a plus.

1. The first design that is comes in to my mind is their first page at Microsoft.com. Well it might not be like Apple.com, but I think is quite elegant. Also very clean and the first page does not have scrollbarofobia like many other corporate websites.
2. The second design that I like is Mactopia.com, which is a website dedicated to Office suite on Mac machines. This has a good clean dark design and really nice graphics – not too much but always in good proportions.
3. The third site is the presentation spot for Expression Studio. Expression Studio is Microsoft’s response to Adobe Creative Suite. For the moment the pack is not so powerful but at least the site looks really good.

My best regards to Microsoft Design Team and keep up the good work.
[Numai bine]

Define: SrollbaroFobia: The scare to have a scrollbar in your browser when displaying a website

Design ★★★★½
Diversity ★★★★½
Techniques ★★★★☆
——————–
Overall ★★★★½

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