Bing: The Marriage of Art and Science by Jamie

Each Bing user has their own reasons for loving Bing.  I love the design – the new picture on the home page every day, the interactive feel.  Bing is a marriage of art and science or design and development.  We have talented engineers writing elegant code and we have gifted designers driving the human interface.  We are thinking a lot about how are users interact with Bing and how to make that the best experience.  Design is one of the facets that will help revolutionize the online search experience. 

 

I am currently recruiting for several open user experience designers.  As I speak with these candidates, it has been interesting to compare design team culture at other companies to the culture of the Bing Design team.  Many engineering companies incorporate design as an afterthought.  Or they have incorporated design into their plan, but design professionals have not had a seat at the table to help drive strategy.  The Bing design team reports directly to one of the Corporate Vice Presidents of Search.  Design has a seat at the table to influence strategy and pave the way for innovation.  Our design team in not one person trying to persuade a room full of engineers to do something.  Our design team is robust; we have designers, researchers and editorial professionals who collaborate with each other and the engineering teams.  They are looking to push the envelope in terms of visual design and interaction.  They are instrumental in making Bing more than just a search engine and they are getting the resources they need to do it- we’re hiring 5+ designers join this team.  The overall Bing team has a lot of respect for design, they see how it is already changing the landscape of search.  My candidates have told me that to be a designer at large engineering company, where you have resources, support and respect is exciting.  Keep an eye on Bing Design, they have a lot more in store for us!