REDMOND, Wash., June 27, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has won a Gold 2003 Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) for its prototype software design as displayed in the Microsoft Center for Information Work (CIW). The company’s win was in the New Media and User Interface category. The Gold IDEA is given to companies that demonstrate design and design analogy, combining creative appeal with functionality. Although Microsoft has received 11 IDEAs for its hardware, this is the first time the company has won for its software design.
“By awarding a Gold IDEA to Microsoft, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is recognizing the importance of innovative software design in today’s technology environment,”
said Peter Rinearson, corporate vice president of New Markets at Microsoft.
“The winning design, as shown in the CIW, showcases how future software advancements might look and invites users to imagine a world where enhanced mobility, business process and collaboration are at every information worker’s fingertips.”
To research and develop the winning design, the Microsoft Office Design team engaged product planners, technology researchers and behavioral experts to gain a better understanding of how software is enhancing productivity today and how it relates to trends in technology and human behavior. Through this analysis, the Office Design team gained a thorough understanding of how individuals use productivity software — specifically, the context in which people work and the ways they work together. The software in the CIW was designed to address these areas:
-
Further empowerment of individuals
-
The advancement of human collaboration
-
The freedom to be productive any time, any place
“Microsoft has created an exciting preview of the potential of future productivity software with this clever and engaging interactive experience,”
said Julie Heard, Mixer Group, IDSA.
“It deserves credit for investing time and resources in this valuable activity.”
Located on Microsoft’s Redmond campus, the CIW represents a companywide effort to build a prototype of what productivity technology could look like five years from now. The CIW uses workplace scenarios to demonstrate concepts of how software can help improve the way information workers manage information overload, gain access to important data to enable faster decision-making, and stay connected when away from the office. Through the software designs in the CIW, workers can see advancements in software that are creating an evolving model for a highly productive working environment.
More information about the IDEA winners, including pictures of the winning submissions, can be found at http://www.idsa.org/.
More information on the Center for Information Work, including pictures of the winning IDEA submission, is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ciw/.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft®
Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp.
