Yahoo! Messenger for Vista prototypes start to break new ground
About a year ago, Yahoo!'s programmers rearchitected Messenger. They identified capabilities common to all platforms, and built a core body of code. This freed their designers to adapt Messenger's user interface to each operating system. So the Mac client is more Mac-like, and so on.
With WinVista coming out soon, their team is working to finish the native version of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista (Mv). Yahoo! expects a release to market in Q2 this year. Here are some of the coming features (if the creeks don't rise):
Profile-generated buddy groups. Your Mv user profile link to your other Yahoo! profiles. 
Yahoo! knows you've signed up for their sports, checkers, job search, mailing lists, investment forums, dating services. Mv puts that connection to use: Mv dynamically creates lists of your buddies based on common attributes. So you can see that five of your friends are on the Burning Man mailing list, three play bridge, and seven are watching the Sopranos marathon on HBO at the same time you are. Powerful lock-in. Privacy issues need work before release: you may not want your boss to see you are both looking for the same job, or that you've joined a cancer support group or that you're also in a dating club for submissives.
Behavior-generated buddy groups. Bringing relevance to buddy lists. I'd find it useful to show people you talk to often, or just once, or for long talks, or on some regular schedule. Mv may use it's own logs to better bring buddies to your attention. It would be interesting to see this informed by your other Yahoo! contact vectors, like email and blog feeds.
Sidebar buddies. Since not all friends are equal, Mv comes with a gadget that lives in the sidebar. You can drag your frequently called buddies from your list to the gadget, and always see their presence or one-click-to-call/chat as part of your desktop.
VoIP. PhoneIn, PhoneOut, and PC to PC. Free voicemail. p2p where possible, else relay/server. Still no multiparty video soon. Nor conference calling.
Visualizations are new; something to look at (distract you?) while you talk to someone. The example above shows a rotating planet with pulsing "radio waves." In a video call, Mv replaces the visualization with the live vid feed. Note the mode ribbon (text, call, video, share) is multiple choice; and that the window contains all elements of the conversation.
When you make a Yahoo! PhoneOut call and it is connected to regular phones by a Yahoo! partner with retail telecom operations (like AT&T or BT), Mv may show the carrier's logo.
Flexible orientation and layout. Think wide. The average Vista sale will be for a wide screen aspect ratio, 16:10, suitable for playing hi-def movies. Messenger for Vista (Mv for short) lets you reshape your main window from the traditional skinny vertical column to a wide display. As you stretch it, its contents (buddy lists, groups, history, etc.) adapt to the new layout.
Text vs. Visual Buddy Displays. The version I saw had a slider that let you shift the presentation inside the window from a face-focused view to one with smaller persona icons, increased textual detail, and more people visible at the same time. 
A great distinction between normal social vs. workplace contexts.
Theme tweaking exposed. They are building affordances (the parts of the UI you can touch and manipulate) that let you change Mv's skin color and texture by picking from a wheel type of style palette launched from a button on the front. Like the resizing, this enables direct manipulation, making tweaking more immediate, less abstract, and fun.
Animated emoticons. Emoticons are the little pictures you can include in a chat message, like a happy face. They are visual shorthand for feelings and ideas. Mv's "super emoticons" are little bundles of animation that jump out of the IM context to make a point. A little over the top for my taste, they are sure to be a hit among anyone using emoticons now. Frankly, I'd love to see an emoticon plug-in creation and sharing framework, so designers can create and spread their own unique aesthetics and notions.
Windowing. We saw a user combine open Mv windows by dragging them on top of one another, leaving you with one window with tabs (see picture below). Again, letting people manage their cognitive burdens.
The rearchitecture is as much an innovation management decision as a technical one. With three teams bouncing designs off of three different user communities, Yahoo! multiplies their opportunities for deep learning and to discover compelling experiences.
On a side note, their Realtime Communications organization is now part of the Audiences Group.
Technorati tags: skype, skypejournal, yahoo!, yahoo, realtimecommunications, voip, messenger, yahoomessenger, design, ui, ue, ux
Written by Skype Journal on January 9th, 2007 with
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