Lucas R. Haines
Selected work

Windows Phone: taking navigation off the hardware and onto the screen

When
2012–2020
Problem
Phones of the era, Windows Phone included, relied on hardware navigation buttons on the front of the device. They fixed the design, constrained screen layouts and added cost to every phone.
My role
PM for Windows Phone navigation and the Windows 10 animation platform (leading a team of five), then PM in the Windows Design Studio and developer experience.
Result
On-screen navigation with haptics shipped with backward compatibility for every existing app. It cut about $0.50 per device in bill of materials, millions saved across devices, and opened lower price tiers for phone makers.

Every Windows Phone had hardware navigation buttons on the front. I led the move to put Back, Start and the other navigation controls on the screen, with haptic feedback so they still felt physical under your thumb. It had to work for every existing app on day one, so backward compatibility was part of the design from the start.

The experience impact was a cleaner device and on-screen patterns people could rely on. The business impact was about $0.50 less per device in bill of materials. That added up to millions across the devices shipped, and helped the platform reach lower price tiers.

Expression animations

On Windows 10, we defined the animation platform from competitive analysis and customer research. The core idea: describe motion as expressions that run on a separate composition thread, so animation keeps its frame rate without per-frame calls from the app. That work is covered by U.S. Patent 10,466,974, Independent expression animations, on which I’m a named inventor.

Fluent and developer experience

In the Windows Design Studio, I helped create the Fluent Design System: advanced prototyping, evolving the look and feel of Windows, and launching Fluent at Microsoft Build. I then moved into developer experience, helping developers build rich, cinematic apps and use the platform’s tools to bring Fluent to their apps and the Windows shell.

Along the way I also shipped Miracast and USB screen sharing and personalized Start-screen photos.