XBOX 360 FOR MICROSOFT
FROM GAMING, TO PLAYING
Microsoft needed more than a competitive console. They needed a platform that could redefine what a console was for, and a team bold enough to show them how.
We weren't meant to win the pitch. My team had been working on Microsoft Office builds. We heard rumours of a secret console, Project Occam, and relentlessly pestered our client for an invitation.
The presentation to Bill Gates and the Microsoft board in Seattle was a surprise win, and the beginning of a project that would see my team design, build and test a vast spectrum of interface experiences while directly influencing the console's industrial and brand design. Interface informed product, product informed interface, both informed brand.
Close to one hundred experience designs were reduced to four, then road-tested across cultures and audiences worldwide. The selected design, the Xbox 360 Dashboard, had one overriding purpose: get players to their game as fast as possible. At a time when interfaces competed to be elaborate and experiential, we asked what someone actually needs the moment they pick up a controller.
The answer was speed, clarity and the freedom to make the console their own, introducing customisation as a concept every platform since has adopted as standard.
Officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, the Xbox 360's holistic design and pioneering use of digital media distribution through Xbox Live made it the most influential console of its time, giving Microsoft a strategic lead that redefined the market.
THE FINAL DASHBOARD INTERFACE. LIGHTNING FAST WITH THE XBOX CONTROLLER.
“The challenge was huge; Microsoft had high expectations for Xbox 360 which had a goal to take Xbox to next level and, by bringing other forms of entertainment into the console, broaden the user base beyond hard core gamers.
The Microsoft design team was small, the timeline was short and the specs and feature set kept evolving. As a result, we leant on James for a significant amount of heavy lifting.
He and his team worked fast and smart; they created a design system that not only accommodated a huge range of features and was completely scalable, but was a joy to use while staying true to the brand. The result was a design experience that the world loved, and served our needs perfectly.”
DON COYNER
GENERAL MANAGER OF ENTERTAINMENT DESIGN, MICROSOFT
