81. Jeff Fong
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
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1993
Joins Microsoft as an intern
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2000
Becomes a father to his first child
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2002
Files his first patent
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2003
Is granted his first patent
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2009
Starts working on “Metro,” the name first formalized for the Windows Phone redesign effort.