Brandon Kelly writes in:
Saw this ad in the latest issue of Information Week. Only Microsoft could possibly see a big panel of buttons and think “this must be what our customers want”. I just had to send it in to you guys.
You’re reading Signal v. Noise, a publication about the web by Basecamp since 1999. Happy !
Brandon Kelly writes in:
Saw this ad in the latest issue of Information Week. Only Microsoft could possibly see a big panel of buttons and think “this must be what our customers want”. I just had to send it in to you guys.
Eric Anderson
on 08 Oct 07Took me a minute to realize it was an elevator. I think it is decent marketing for their target market. The target market for this ad is a large company. The ad is saying their software in built for a large organization. The only downside is that all the buttons convey the message “confusing” which is not really what they are trying to say. Once you look at it a minute and realize the are talking about the size of the building not the buttons the business person is using it’s not as bad is it first looks.
Ismo Ruotsalainen
on 08 Oct 07Eh, great post.
LOL.
Travis
on 08 Oct 07I actually like the ad. If you look at the tag line and look at the photo to realize it’s a huge elevator button panel, the ad has a pretty strong message. Sure, “simple is better” might apply, but the point they’re making is that System Center is engineered for huge systems, though I doubt that claim ;)
Ben
on 08 Oct 07But that is what their customers want. Some people like simple, some people like lots of buttons. That’s the beauty of free-will ;)
Dave
on 08 Oct 07Having worked in IT at some companies that were only mid-sized, we would have KILLED to be able to manage our multi-site network with one panel of buttons. Even a panel this ridiculously large.
I’d imagine a similar Linux ad to have a similar large panel of buttons, except that:
They would be in different fonts, different shapes and different sizes. (which may actually be beneficial mind you) There would be several that didn’t do anything when you pressed them. (At least not anything visible – but you might wonder why your coworker gets shocked in his chair whenever you press “691”) 418 buttons would be to launch different text editors. By the time you got half-way through learning the buttons, half of the previous buttons would have upgraded, forked into new buttons, died out, or just simply changed focus. Many of the buttons would be taped over with “DO NOT USE! COULD DESTROY THE WORLD!”Scott Wintheiser
on 08 Oct 07I think you’re just looking for a reason to criticize Microsoft. To me the ad makes perfect sense. What says big business/systems better than a building with 659+ floors.
George
on 08 Oct 07I’m sure if it was an Apple ad you guys would consider it genius… This credo is getting nauseous.
Mike Torres
on 08 Oct 07Yeah, I think you’re missing the point of the ad.
From what I can gather, it isn’t a prototype of a button array for IT, it’s an elevator. “Designed for big” is the opposite of 37 signals – some companies actually have hundreds of offices and need hundreds of buttons in an elevator :)
Jake
on 08 Oct 07I think this post is a bit off. The point of the ad, it seems to me, is that sometimes there’s no getting around the complexity of a huge operation, and companies in that situation need a system to manage that complexity.
But I agree that it’s easy to see this ad and think “Microsoft is so clueless”—and that makes it, at best, mediocre execution.
Anonymous Coward
on 08 Oct 07Um, did you guys read the post? A reader sent this in. This isn’t something 37signals said.
David Norton
on 08 Oct 07I disagree; I know several other companies that would think a large panel of identical buttons is intuitive.
Tor Løvskogen
on 08 Oct 07I really like the type in the middle, even if it’s negative, it’s executed good.
Mike
on 08 Oct 07Anon, a reader may have sent it in but it was 37s that decided to post it. I doubt that they post every reader suggestion they receive so it was very much a concious decision by 37s to relay some kind of message by posting it.
Jeff Koke
on 08 Oct 07The irony of this is that an elevator, even one with 659 floors, is not a complex system. You press a button for a floor and it takes you there. It’s not rocket science (but THAT would have made for a good ad).
Ryan
on 08 Oct 07The ad would’ve been more successful and communicate better if they differentiated themselves from the wall of buttons.
They could’ve done this by zooming out a bit and showing one guy at the big wall of Elevator buttons, and then show another guy maybe 2 feet to the right (or whatever) standing in front of an empty wall with one button that is blue and says “where you want to go.” Microsoft could put their logo right next to it as well as their copy block, and viola they’re showing how they make the confusing into something simple.
Addi
on 08 Oct 07To design a elevator with 600+ buttons instead of a keypad is a prime example of scaling without refactoring, or thinking for that matter.
To market enterprise software in that way is pretty ineffective since scaling is probably a big issue for the target audience.
Mrad
on 08 Oct 07Holy crap. Are they ever gonna get it?
Matt B.
on 08 Oct 07Instead of 659 – it should be 666. ; )
Hotwired
on 08 Oct 07Wonkavator anyone ?
Joel
on 08 Oct 07I agree with Eric and Ryan. It’s one of those kind of ads that works.. but could have worked better with just a few minor adjustments to the shot.
Arik
on 08 Oct 07That ad is a perfect summation of what Microsoft is all about. They were never about the individual end-user. Look at everything that Microsoft produces, its all built with business and large companies in mind.
So hooray for this ad, cause its probably the most realistic ad that Microsoft has floating around today.
Jay Levitt
on 08 Oct 07I agree with “Dave”. On the up side, if the purpose of the snark is to show the world that Rails folks don’t understand large systems, this totally hit the spot.
robertogreco
on 08 Oct 07Don’t forget the remote.
Automatt
on 08 Oct 07This reminds me of the control panel from Lifted, the Pixar short film that preceded the theatrical release of Ratatouille.
http://www.pixar.com/shorts/lift/lift_1.html
Benjy
on 08 Oct 07What about their considerations for usability. This would exclude use by short people who coundn’t reach to higher buttons :)
While I get what they were trying to say here, it does send subtle messages that one can simply scale the same way. But this isn’t the case. This type of button array would be the logical expansion from, say a car radio w/ 5 or 6 presets to an iPod w/ countless songs/playlists. But Apple reimagined the interface when scaling wasn’t the best option. In a building of 650+ floors, wouldn’t a scrollwheel be the more elegant solution?
Brian Webb
on 08 Oct 07Hey, it does indeed remind me of that digital short that preceded Pixar’s film… Ratatouille. (which by the way was hilarious.)
Replying to the comments and sarcasm comparing Apple to Microsoft… I recently did a brand comparison between the two companies on my blog. Apple has more “depth” in their brand, but Microsoft clearly has more “breadth.”
I am a huge fan of Apple… not just because of their hardware and software… but specifically because of their brand and business model.
Nonetheless, Microsoft still owns the world as we know it.
Tom G.
on 08 Oct 07The ad isn’t about a UI recommended by Microsoft, it’s about handling big jobs. In the case of System Center, managing hundreds of servers is big. Don’t forget, there was a day when Microsoft fought hard to be seriously considered for even medium scale business applications. Microsoft solutions still many times aren’t considered for very large applications. Apple hardly even tries to fight this battle.
That being said, I think the ad is unclear and uncompelling. It invites ridicule and misunderstanding and unintentionally sends incorrect signals.
A superior UI for this application would be a simple phone layout keyboard with a small mix of simple audio-visual prompts and feedback.
Adam
on 08 Oct 07Gotta love the internet – everyone’s an expert!
edddy
on 08 Oct 07Sorry, but you are the dumb that don’t get the ad (or post anything without reading)
Joran
on 08 Oct 07Microsoft is dead in the water. They don’t know it. They’re not even trying to swim it out.
The days of cheap mass-produced harware components put together ala Dell are over. And with it Windows. The future is in computing “appliances.” PC manufacturers no longer have the technical ability or manufacturing know-how to develop these devices at the same level as Apple or the phone companies. They’re ten years away from being able to clone the iMac or iPhone.
Sorry guys, you played the short-term. You milked it. You’re Texas Instruments as opposed to Hewlett Packard. More interested in the cheap calculators than any form of technical contribution. And now it’s time up. You’re day is done.
Game Over. ;)
Zach
on 08 Oct 07Yeah, Dell sure is struggling to find new customers. You’ve got them pegged, Joran.
Seriously, do you have anything to back up this fantasy world of yours, or are you just hoping that if you wish hard enough, the world will be the way you want it? Do you have any idea how long of a time ten years is in this industry?
Christ.
nexusprime
on 08 Oct 07A wall of buttons as opposed to, say, a numeric keypad for entering the floor number?
Heh.
Justin
on 08 Oct 07Only 16% revenue growth last year for a company that has more money on hand than things to do with it. You’re absolutely right Joran. Dead in the freaking water.
ncus
on 09 Oct 07How far is the building with 659 floors?
I bet if an earthquake strike the building, it will be shake like a hoola hup.
Uncle Paul
on 09 Oct 07The ad fails for the simple reason that you cannot immediately look at it and divine what the message is supposed to be.
Most the posts here are going to great lengths to debate what they think the ad means as opposed to it being apparent what is being sold.
The Goob
on 09 Oct 07Each button is either a SQL Server license or a Windows Sever license or an Office license or a Sharepoint license or…. Not enough buttons.
Jack
on 09 Oct 07LOL. another typical 37singals blog. you guy’s blog are slowly and surely evolving into nothing but joke.
the ad is very typical. almost every ad that is targeting big Corp. have same typical ad like MS. Shouldn’t you compare apple to apple? have you look at other IT ad aim at big Corp. or perhaps MS should do a tasteless, snotty ad like Apple’s “PC vs Mac” that just alienating people and reenforce the typical Mac user image.
Signal vs Noise got more useless noises from the blogger than Signal. I’m sure the author will wet his undie if the ad is done by Apple. what a joke.
Nic
on 09 Oct 07@Justin: bear in mind that 16% growth p.a. is not so bad when you’ve got such a large market share. And 16% of revenue figures with a hundred zeros behind is not to be shirked at.
Your reasoning is a bit like the feeling here in South Africa that they’re getting on top of AIDS because the infection rate has slowed down a lot, when the actual reason for this is that there aren’t enough uninfected people let to maintain the infection rate.
P.S. I see the Microsoft-AIDS-”Infection Rate” comments coming!
Anonymous Coward
on 09 Oct 07Love that you posted this! What makes a great blog is conversation and the SVN blog is one of the most commented blogs I have seen. So ignore the people that say you shouldn’t post this.
Let’s face it Microsoft could have picked a better image to accompany their message.
Clearly Microsoft isn’t communicating a message of UI design. The humour in this is 37 Signals excel in simple UI design and a lift with 659 floor could have been better serviced with a key-pad. The fact that Microsoft (more likely a advertising hot shot) didn’t think about the milage UI enthusiasts would get out of this sums up their lack of foresight.
*Drag’s the text box larger in Safari 3, haven’t seen that in IE (sorry couldn’t resist)
As for the Apple vs Microsoft debate there will never be a winner. However one conclusion I have made – NEVER try to convince a non Mac owner that Mac OS X may be better than Window.
One flaw in this debate is you have to compare apples to apples pardon the pun..
Tiger / Leopard vs Windows Vista iPod vs Zune iPhone vs ? Windows Mobile Windows Server 2003 vs Leopard Server? Microsoft Office 2007 vs ?? Microsoft SharePoint vs ?? iLife vs ??
What I draw from this list 1. Apple has more “depth” in their brand, but Microsoft clearly has more “breadth.” (As Brian Webb noted above) 2. For those who have used or at least researched both will find Apple are clearly more innovative, more recently have had small innovation cycles, are more successful in entering new markets and have had far more market growth in their core products 3. Apple does not really play in the enterprise space 4. Microsoft clearly have the largest market share (noted above by others)
Let note the first talk of Apple vs Microsoft was raise by George “I’m sure if it was an Apple ad you guys would consider it genius… This credo is getting nauseous.” must have a chip on his shoulder.
As for Apple advertising SOME people find it appealing because its simple, humours and focuses on the PRODUCT – something that many consumer technology organisations could learn from. I am sick of moblie phone company’s selling poorly design products with emotionally appealing adverts that have nothing to do with the product.
Any way enough time on this…
Sebhelyesfarku
on 09 Oct 07Apple elevator: one big shuffle button, takes to a random floor. Doesn’t matter, on every floor the same big Jobs poster to be praised by dumbass Maczealots.
Chris
on 09 Oct 07now I remember why I don’t come here very often.
I bet you guys just sit around smelling your own farts thinking how great you are.
Mark
on 09 Oct 07Has anyone considered that the elevator buttons resemble the facade of a corporate high rise?
Take a minute to visit the supporting website mentioned in the ad to see the advertising in context of the campaign.
Walt Kania
on 09 Oct 07Classic goof. They buried the lead. Way down in the impossible-to-read reverse type is the fact that Nissan manages 56,500 desktops from one control center. It’s not the size of the damn building, but the number of assets you can control.
Then again, they never asked me.
Robert Dundon
on 09 Oct 07I saw this ad in Information Week, and thought the same thing: “what a lousy UI.” I get their point, as I also saw the blurb about Nissan’s network.
Maybe they could have made a better ad, or maybe not. Either way, I still wouldn’t have bought anything, so what difference does it make?
And speaking of Microsoft ads in Information Week, I like the zombies/viruses, and pirates/ninjas/spyware ad. I found it funny.
Kevin Vigneault
on 09 Oct 07I don’t understand why so many people are making the assumption that this ad is about how Microsoft would design the UI for the elevator. The guy in the elevator is meant to represent the client that Microsoft is targeting, who works at some giant company in a huge building.
sloan
on 09 Oct 07I think this ad has an awful first read, and that is a big problem. I think it reflects the identity problems Microsoft has, just look at their recent campaigns, “Your Potential, Our Passion”, “People Ready”, etc. They have a large breadth of products, but seem to be confused how each business unit should promote itself. XBox is in a different state, so that probably helps, but in general, I think it is the curse of trying to tie too many things together and appeal to so many people and situations that makes them weak.
Darrel
on 09 Oct 07Having been tasked with figuring out SharePoint, I think this ad is perfect. MS sells giant gobs of features. Not necessarily anything usable, mind you, but enough bullet points to appease person that buys software based on the brochure.
Darrel
on 09 Oct 07“I think it is the curse of trying to tie too many things together and appeal to so many people and situations that makes them weak.”
...and is used to really crappy UI design. THE PERFECT MS CLIENT!
Ralph
on 09 Oct 07A really large office building would have separate elevators for different ranges of floors in order to shorten each journey and reduce the confusion. I get the message of the ad, but it is easy to read it as “experts with the inefficient”.
Aaron
on 09 Oct 07Only thing I dont like about it is the MS logo at the top. I would have put it somewhere else…. That said, I think that is where they have put their logo on the other “people ready business” adverts…
This is probably the best MS advert I’ve seen for ages, I and I’m a Mac fan.
BTW, I’m really loving the phrase. “Designed for big.” has a nice ring to it.
MJR
on 09 Oct 07This is just an idea to try to show that the company that works in this building is BIG. The company is BIG. That’s it. Microsoft can provide services to big companies. That’s the ad.
Someone said, “We need to show that MS provides services for BIG clients. How can we show that a company is big? What visual would indicate that a company is big?”
And the answer was a big building with lots of floors. So how do you show that….VISUALLY? “Lots of buttons in an elevator. Ha ha cool idea!”
It’s a simple idea and it has nothing to do with the usability factors of lots of buttons, vs a keypad, vs multiple elevators.
That fact that there are so many comments on this entry just proves that most everyone is reading too much into a simple visual idea as a metaphor for MS as a business.
Keith
on 09 Oct 07I’ve seen a few of these Big ads.
I like the fact that the buttons show all the options – manifest affordance in Don Norman’s phrase.
If an organisation is complex, then lets show that and not hide it.
Sport
on 09 Oct 07Anyone see Airplane II: The Sequel? “These lights are blinking out of sequence, get them to blink in sequence!” Conjures up that sort of lameness.
Sport
on 09 Oct 07Ohhh and even funnier, the newest elevators don’t have buttons!! Forgot about that. Behind the times even in a new ad. How sad.
Mark Jaquith
on 09 Oct 07639 floors?
Solution:
display [Go »]
Mark Jaquith
on 09 Oct 07Yikes… that got eaten.
1. Display
2. 0-9 keypad
3. “Go »” button
Anonymous Coward
on 09 Oct 07“It’s a simple idea and it has nothing to do with the usability factors of lots of buttons, vs a keypad, vs multiple elevators.”
I’m pretty sure everyone in this thread knows that, MJR. Smile.
jonathan
on 09 Oct 07Vista Otis Edition?
Tyler
on 09 Oct 07… and deservedly so, because than the ad would have only one button. ;)
Noah Mittman
on 09 Oct 07While I don’t think it reads well at first glance, on second glance (e.g., after reading it some) it became clear to me that this is about the enterprise IT managers’ ability to pinpoint one machine in a pool of tens of thousands.
The elevator is meant to convey the feeling of having to face an overwhelming number of possibilities but having the ability to pinpoint and select just the one that matters. In terms of Donald Gunn’s master ad formats, as Slate recently covered, it is #3: Symbol, Analogy, or Exaggerated Graphic (Illustrating the Problem).
If you’ve never managed a server farm, or have had to think about the challenges of doing so, this isn’t going to resonate. Then again, this was in Information Week— this may just be a classic example of “if you don’t like the ad, it’s probably not meant for you.”
Anthony
on 09 Oct 07Why does this remind of some guy trying to plug a dike with his finger? I guess it’s quite humorous when you think about it that way.
ryan
on 09 Oct 07This is a pretty good metaphor for the typical Microsoft-designed UI.
Anthony
on 09 Oct 07Goes well with Big Ass Table by MSFT too.
A George
on 09 Oct 07‘Lifted’ In Pixar’s lastest short, a teen alien learns that failure is an option.
Devon Rueckner
on 09 Oct 07Apparently not.
Harvard Irving
on 10 Oct 07That to me says that big business is retarded. A building with 659+ floors would be horribly inefficient.
It demonstrates a sick mentality of bigness for bigness’ sake – rather than staying focused on a goal or making things better.
Who cares if life is more miserable, and it takes two hours to get out of the building? We’re big! Nauseating.
Of course, companies like Microsoft love dystopian societies. It’s their ultimate fantasy to live in a grey world of nothing but suits, concrete and business software. I think the world can do without such fascists.
edward
on 10 Oct 07Why is the dude in the poster not looking at where hes pressing!!! Thats the wrong button dude, STOP!!!! Kaplooosssh … squirt.
Matt
on 10 Oct 07Even as a huge Apple fan, I find this “my ad is better than your ad” nitpicking completely juvenile.
Richard
on 10 Oct 07Dutch Boy. Dike. Finger. Hmmm…
Joseph
on 10 Oct 07Many people don’t even recognize that it’s an elevator, and just see the picture as a giant wall of identical buttons and confusion. Everyone understands that Microsoft wanted to convey the idea of “big”, but this ad does a terrible job of it.
GC
on 10 Oct 07Hmm…what a bad design for the elevator. Why not just have a numeric keypad where the user can enter in the floor he/she wishes to go to (A label would indicate the minimum and maximum floors in the building)
Dan Grossman
on 10 Oct 07Because that’s not how IT systems in big corporations are built. They’re grown, slowly, over many years. New systems and buildings are put up while existing ones continue to run. Like adding buttons to an elevator until it becomes so huge it’s hard to figure out what button you need to push. And System Center can step in to help you simplify and take control without tearing down your infrastructure to put up a new one each time you grow like you’re suggesting.
All this post shows is that 37S is so small they don’t understand big.
Anthony
on 10 Oct 07I think this ad conveys its quite well: Microsoft is big, confusing and noone can figure out which button to push to make anything work right.
LKM
on 10 Oct 07Good idea, extremely awful execution. Yeah, it’s an elevator, which is supposed to suggest a huge building. No, it doesn’t. I just suggests crappy UI.
V M Ganata
on 10 Oct 07From a pure advertisement standpoint, this ad simply sucks, guys. I didn’t realize it was an elevator until I started reading the comments. “659” is not a normal number for a floor in a building. What the hell am I looking at? Dr. Evil’s control panel for his “laser”?
And what the hell are they selling? Elevators with 659+ buttons?
And once I understood that they’re selling their ability to scale big (again, only by reading the comments), my first thought was, “That’s not very scalable. What moron build an elevator like that?”
n'e'r-do-well
on 10 Oct 07I do wonder if the ad company actually mocked-up that button panel and photographed it, or if they just photoshopped something in after they shot the guy with his finger on a greenscreen.
And I’m sorry, but if your business is THAT big, you need a mainframe, not 56,000 Windows boxes.
JB
on 10 Oct 07Their “customers” in this case are executive-level technology employees. What this ad says to the executive is that he or she only needs this software package and one person to manage his or her entire technology operation = lower costs = higher profits.
The reason Microsoft is going for large enterprises is so they can charge for licensing per machine = higher margins. This is why Microsoft is focused on the enterprise market and this ad makes perfect business sense.
Penguin Pete
on 10 Oct 07No, if this were a Linux interface, it would have an entry box and a ten-key number pad so you could key in the floor number. But, of course, that’s a command line, so the Microsofties would have a terminal freak-out about it. The Mac would of course have a wheel dial.
Really, this picture is exactly how Microsoft thinks. Icons, menus, and buttons: no controls to do what you really want to do, but 10,000 buttons to click on while you hunt for it. Microsoft UI: nine useless fingers and one sore one.
Shawn Oster
on 10 Oct 07What I like most about this ad is the sparks it’s raising here in the comments. I’m also a little surprised that both the person that sent it in and the poster missed the point of the ad. Makes me wonder why some people just “get it” and others don’t. You probably have to actually have worked at or at least been in a large corporation to understand this, to have actually been on huge campuses or buildings that really do have 50+ floors.
Anyway, it’s interesting to see a mix of thoughts and perspectives from all OS camps though a little sad to see a few people devolve into basic name calling. All in all I think this ad works great for its target market.
Shawn Oster
on 10 Oct 07@Penguin Pete…
Just to help clarify, the ad isn’t saying that this in an interface to anything but an elevator. They are using the numerous menu elevator buttons as a quick visual to convey a sense of scale of the company in question to tell ad viewers that the software is designed for huge corporations. In fact they are purposely presenting something as complex, that being the huge number of buttons, and implying that if your company is this complex then System’s Center will help.
Mark Gukov
on 11 Oct 07Here’s a similar concept: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/pultius/
Mark
on 11 Oct 07I know this thread is long over and done, but this video seems to be a perfect fit for some of the comments here—
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYEf8XZKlUU
The Goob
on 12 Oct 07Try this one http://englishrussia.com/?p=1553
Petter Jensen
on 12 Oct 07This ad is good for one reason; it is visually appealing and interesting. But it is bad for most other reasons. The really bad, is this is probably exactly how Microsoft is. Might be designed for big – not necessarily for great.
Smarmy
on 14 Oct 07Insert lame cliché about Microsoft here. Call self clever. Accuse the majority of the world that uses Windows as idiots. Make worldwide prophecy about the demise of the most popular operating system in your lifetime. Smile smugly to self. Click “Post this comment.”
Thanks, Joran.
mariuz
on 15 Oct 07The microsoft’s motto “Your Potential . Our Passion” should be replaced with “Your Potential . Our Poison”
This discussion is closed.