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Jeff Fong
Design Lead for Windows Phone, Microsoft
How To Find Design Inspiration
Airports may be frustrating, but give them this: "The signage is so clean, pure, and direct, it helps you navigate a very complicated environment," Jeff Fong says. "I wondered, Can we apply that same approach to designing our user interface?" His team culled photos from London's Heathrow and designed the smartphone's software--with its animated, colored tiles, and straightforward imagery--based on the signs' typography and simplicity.
Timeline
1993
Joins Microsoft as an intern
2000
Becomes a father to his first child
2002
Files his first patent
2003
Is granted his first patent
2009
Starts working on "Metro," the name first formalized for the Windows Phone redesign effort.
A version of this article appears in the June 2012 issue of Fast Company.