
Show HN: I redesigned the Microsoft employee badge - aalpbalkan
http://alp.im/blog/microsoft-employee-badge-redesign
======
kayfox
* The circle makes it hard to see at a glance if the face matches the badge, this is a big deal.

* The employee number should be on the front, because this is often needed for identifying people who security cant stop (for whatever reason), but are doing bad things.

* Printing on the back is expensive, the badge printers that do this cost often twice as much. Printing color is even more expensive, your talking increasing the cost of the badge by about a third. This also leads to other problems like heavy head wear because of the smart card contact, having to define avoidance areas because of the same and jamming issues with the added complexity of using the card flipper.

* Employment classification (Employee, Intern, Vendor Name, Partner, etc) should be printed in text on the front.

* Smaller companies would be encouraged to avoid printing the company logo or name on the badge, as this tells people where it will work.

* Same with the address, and the cost of replacement and expedience means returning the badge is useless. This wasn't true when Motorola Flexpass badges were first rolled out at MS, but its true now.

* Badge photos need to be standardized for various security reasons.

* Your current badge does already emphasize your first name, its not as prominent on yours as it was on mine, but it changes from time to time as they much with the access control software.

Where I'm coming from: I am a security engineer, I previously worked on
physical security management and had started out in the industry at Microsoft.
I work on systems that print hard cards for a paying hobby.

PS, I was fired from MS for posting an image of myself online where my badge
was clear enough to copy. Might be something to check on.

~~~
nemesisj
OK, I'll bite.

\- Why does the circle make it harder to see at a glance? This doesn't seem to
be true at all.

\- If you can't stop someone, you're not going to be able to read the number
on the badge. I don't see any reason why your employee number should be on the
front. It definitely doesn't enhance security at all. People faking badges can
fake numbers too.

\- I'm not sure about your points re: cost or smaller employers, I mean, sure,
but I can't imagine that cost would be a huge barrier - more likely changing
out equipment would be.

\- Badget photo backgrounds probably need to be plain, but as long as it's a
photo you can be reasonably recognised from, I'm not sure what it matters.
Simply by growing a beard you can become pretty hard to recognise from your
badge photo from 5 years ago.

\- I agree that the employment classification is probably good to have on the
badge, but only because of annoying BigCo obsession about it. In practice, I'm
not sure why it would matter much. When I worked at a big company it was just
a political tool to remind consultants they were inferior.

~~~
flibertgibit
> \- If you can't stop someone, you're not going to be able to read the number
> on the badge.

Ever heard of cameras?

~~~
vacri
Ever seen security camera footage?

~~~
ozim
Ever seen CSI? Enhance!

~~~
zabraxias
Sometimes I have to upvote sarcasm :)

------
mpyne
Well I'll be the constructive voice. _I_ like it.

You should be able to find email address in the corporate directory services,
it's not like people are going to memorize them from looking at a badge. We
already have business cards or mobile devices w/ NFC if it's necessary to
transfer the email address in a persistent form.

Plus having names instead of email serves the more-important purpose of
allowing people to more easily socially interact in meetings, social
gatherings, etc.

Since it would almost be impossible to completely anonymize the purpose of the
badge (especially with the request to return to Microsoft) using the current
visual branding certainly beats using the 1988 visual branding.

I can't speak to "Former Metro" branding but it certainly _looks_ pleasing
enough.

~~~
derefr
> We already have business cards or mobile devices w/ NFC if it's necessary to
> transfer the email address in a persistent form.

Probably not with NFC itself--it'd be somewhat physically awkward to tap a
card on a lanyard around your neck against someone's phone.

But since a conference is exactly the sort of situation in which you _want_ to
leak contact information promiscuously, putting RFID chips in the cards would
work well. Or just putting QR codes on them.

(Doing it with QR codes would actually serve a great double-purpose, if you
got the app for it right: you'd say "hold still for a contact photo!" and then
get a record of their face _and_ their contact information, associated
together.)

~~~
derekp7
One issue with QR code on the badge, you train people to allow others to take
a close up high resolution picture of their badges. And possibly getting close
enough to get the RFID code off the badge so it can be completely cloned.
Sounds like a security nightmare to me. Of course, the RFID can probably be
read at a distance, but if so, why do the door plates need me to hold the
badge right next to them to open the doors?

~~~
derefr
> Of course, the RFID can probably be read at a distance, but if so, why do
> the door plates need me to hold the badge right next to them to open the
> doors?

RFID chips depend on the sensor sending the power for the reply. Low-power
sensors require closer contact; high-power sensors can operate from a
distance.

------
ohwp
A lot of designers make one big mistake. They design the content too. But
content can't be designed.

For example the name. All his designs use short names because they look
beautiful. But in real life names can be much longer.

And ofcourse the pictures. It's nice to have round pictures but it is almost
impossible to get nice round pictures from every employee.

So when you are designing (and this doesn't only apply to graphic design):
test your design using a lot of different content:

    
    
      Will it still work with longer names?
      Will it still work with middle names?
      Will it still work with bad / rectangle pictures?

~~~
astrodust
Why is a circle for cropping so controversial? Do some people have square
heads?

~~~
ohwp
Its controversial because it takes a lot of effort to get it right. For 50
employees it can be done by hand but not so for over 10.000 employees.

Maybe you could use face detection to get the right crop center but even then
there will be a lot of errors and waisted cards.

Most people have a valid ID picture so it's easiest to use that one.

------
cormullion
One suggestion when doing address-book related design work is to add names
such as Jet Li, Arianna Stassinopoulos, Ho Chi Minh, Ludwig van Beethoven, and
Prince (or more appropriate real names) that are annoyingly short or
frustratingly long, or otherwise non-standard, such as consisting of three or
one components instead of the more conventional two. Better to know in advance
of any layout problems you'll face ... :)

------
reddiric
Great job putting together a prototype. Although I'm going to list specific
complaints, I appreciate the effort in creating and risk in sharing, so good
job and thanks.

\- I don't follow the circle photo fad. It seems like an unnecessary
complication (implementation and design element)

\- By moving information to the back, you're assuming that the facilities
which create these badges have the ability to do double-sided prints on the
badges, and if they have the technical ability that it won't increase the time
or work required to print a badge.

\- You're assuming that the badge printer can print completely to the edge.

\- Removing the "Employee" text and relying on the blue color is an
accessibility problem (color-blind people need this information)

\- Customizing your badge photo adds security policy complications.

~~~
kayfox
* Almost every badge printer in modern existence prints to the edge. * Printing on the back does present a costly proposition, not only does the printer need a flipper, but you have to use more costly ribbons to do it with.

~~~
davb
> Printing on the back does present a costly proposition, not only does the
> printer need a flipper, but you have to use more costly ribbons to do it
> with.

Not necessarily. I done some badge printing for a very large organisation
about 8 years ago. Our office alone had >2,000 people. I bought both single-
sided and duplex card printers. The ones with the duplexing units were only
marginally more expensive than the single-sided ones. They all used the same
dye-sub ribbon (if it has a duplexer - "flipper" \- it doesn't need a special
ribbon, it prints one side, flips, then prints the other).

Granted, double sided printing meant each card used twice the ribbon. The dye-
sub ribbon was laid out in 5 consecutive panels - C, M, Y, K and UV coat (with
an optional sixth foil/fluorescent/hologram panel).

Ultimately, we had our card supplier (a very large smartcard/USIM supplier)
pre-print our card backgrounds before cutting the cards and personalising
(writing the card certificate) so our remote branch offices could use very
cheap printers to print only a low-res photo and text content.

Our printers were <£1k each. They had integrated magstripe encoders and
smartcard+contactless interfaces.

------
gilgoomesh
I'm fascinated by a separate point that this badge raises: the "Microsoft"
logo is now the "Windows" logo.

~~~
sneak
...and to someone in tech who isn't intimately familiar with the Windows
logo's color scheme these days, it could be easily mistaken for some Google
thing (though at closer inspection I can tell that the colors are slightly
different - but what I'm describing is not a close inspection).

~~~
shmed
I don't think many people would recognize Google's color theme but not
Microsoft's logo.

------
DanBC
The photos have two examples of employees with their face at an angle - you
can see only one ear of the woman with red hair and one ear of the man with
grey hair.

Since these photos serve a purpose (identifying the bearer, not making the
bearer feel good about the photo) they probably need to be standardised and
use something like passport photo criteria. (Although perhaps gently relaxing
those standards).

There's no accessibility or diversity information either. It'd be nice to at
last think about the needs of visually impaired users, for example.

But the cards are nice! Nicer than the original example.

~~~
sfall
i think they were just stock / random photos not straight on photo that they
will do in the security office

and what diversity info would you need to show?

~~~
DanBC
Consider the use of braille for the tiny number of people who use it? Use
evidence based fonts and colours for readbility?

What happens to people who wear face coverings for religious reasons?

I'm not asking designers to solve all these problems, just to show that
they've at least considered them.

------
normloman
Oh god, what is with the stupid "face in a circle"? I get that everybody's
following the circle trend, but how does putting a face in a circle make your
design more functional?

Also, there's a reason why badges photos are taken from the same angle. It
makes it easier to identify you from your photo. It's harder to recognize
someone from an odd angle. Same goes for photographing on a white backdrop.
Your personal photos have all this distracting scenery to impede
identification.

This is not design. Design makes things work better. This is just decoration.

------
MrHeartBroken
On the note of minimalism the actually Apple badge looks like this.
[http://cdn-static.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/mobiles/jordan-id.j...](http://cdn-
static.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/mobiles/jordan-id.jpg)

~~~
eddieroger
Apple didn't invent the ID card. They just reintroduced it and made it sound
like the invented it.

Seriously, though, the first thing I thought when I clicked the link was, "Oh,
Apple's badge flipped, with iOS 7's circular image mask."

~~~
mcintyre1994
Apple definitely didn't invent circular image masks with iOS 7 either. :)

~~~
eddieroger
They're all derivative of caveman wall art where profiles were drawn in
circles for others to see.

~~~
mwfunk
Nah, that's just what the cavemen wanted people to think, and all the hipster
caveman fanboys ate it up. It was the Neanderthals who came up with the idea,
they just never commercialized it. But walk around the Mission and ask random
hipsters about it and they'll all be like, "the cavemen invented this" and
"the cavemen did it first." What a bunch of sheeple!

------
Greenisus
I love it, but I have one suggestion: show the employee's name on both sides.

For some reason, I have a hard time remembering names (but never forget
faces), so I often glance at badges to try and remind myself what the person's
name is. It's always a bummer when the badge is flipped around and I can't
tell who it is.

------
pshin45
Remarkable how much the old badge [1] resembles the original Nintendo Game Boy
[2].

[1] [https://ahmetalpbalkan.com/blog/static/images/2014/02/old-
fr...](https://ahmetalpbalkan.com/blog/static/images/2014/02/old-front-
promo.jpg)

[2]
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Nintendo_...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Nintendo_Gameboy.jpg)

------
b2themax
I don't like it. Its look is too reminiscent of Google's design language,
especially their 'circles' in Google+. The look is very soft, while
Microsoft's design language (formerly metro) is much more modern.

------
ibmthrowaway218
FWIW the IBM badge has:-

* The 8-bar company logo

* The country of issue

* Name

* Photo

On the back is a magstripe (not really used any more) and central return
address in case it is found.

It has an RFID for door access and to store cash for vending-machines and the
restaurant.

No employee number anywhere. I have to remember that (along with the passwords
for seventy-six different systems.)

Contractors have a yellow background for the name.

ID cards have to be on display at all times, so many wear them on a lanyard or
clipped to a belt loop.

~~~
johnward
As an employee that has never been to a large IBM facility I had no idea it
worked in stores or for vending machines. The only use it has is opening the
front door. I don't wear it in the office and now one has complained yet.

~~~
ibmthrowaway218
Should have said that all of it will vary by site/country.

------
Scaevolus
First names aren't necessarily the 'most important' \-- especially for names
that aren't of European origin.

Employee number isn't sensitive information.

------
urs2102
I'm a fan of the colors and typeface, but doesn't Microsoft's design style
push for more of a rectangular/angular look all around?

------
pmorici
Cool, but they probably won't be able to adopt that design. Badges like this
are made with special printers which have a minimum margin which is why
most/all badge you see out there have that ugly white margin around them.

~~~
stephencanon
I’m fairly certain that Microsoft can afford full-bleed printing for badges.

~~~
RyJones
They already use them - OP didn't show an example badge where they're used. If
you have single-person access to secure areas, the white area around the
background color will be red.

------
jrockway
I like Google's badges:

* Dual-sided, so it's never facing the wrong way out. (No dual-sided printer required, they are glued onto the underlying RFID card.)

* RFID, so there is no sensitive information on the badge.

* The face takes up most of the badge, so it's easy to check if it looks reasonable when someone is following you through the door.

* The face is 3D, which is just plain cool.

* The first name is larger than the last name, making it a little easier to glance over at someone's badge when you've forgotten their name. (This happens to me with frightening regularity.)

------
dlevine
I was an intern at MS in 2001, and this weekend when I was going through my
box of old memorabilia, I found a badge identical to the "current" badge.

Probably time for a redesign...

------
rlu
I'm sure a badge redesign is in the works. I'd be surprised if there isn't a
new badge (at least with updated logo) by this time next year.

Depending on how much it ends up changing, old employees might not be forced
to get a new badge. In that case, it'll eventually be a funny way to
differentiate employees from before/after the "Reorg/Satya Epoch" haha.

~~~
RyJones
we kept the old mag-stripe badges for a year or so until the current system
was rolled out everywhere, so you had to carry both.

------
willcodeforfoo
This makes me think large companies like this should invest just a tad bit
more in taking quality photos. Ditch the DMV backdrop, on-camera flash and low
quality photo and invest in a couple umbrellas and just an entry-level dSLR.
As often as they are seen, you should make people feel good about it.

------
zaidf
Did you consider left aligning the name? By centering the name, you're not
letting the eyes get trained on where to look instinctively. Someone named
"Jim" has a much different starting point than "Mohammed".

Also, I'd have made the last name much smaller.

------
tga
Trying to "think like a user", with the exception of updating the logo, the
badges are identical. Nobody would really notice the change, let alone care
about the text alignment on their security badge.

Take this as constructive criticism, this is the kind of thing that you can
waste a lot of time on without scoring any points with your
users/customer/management.

~~~
grey-area
Thinking like a user, one badge says to me this company doesn't take design or
their image seriously and is probably a terrible place to work. The newer
badge does just the opposite and acts almost as an advert for the company.

------
pitchups
Not to be a contrarian, but am I the only one who finds the entire concept of
badges antiquated to begin with. With today's technology, why not use RFIDs or
a smartphone that automatically signs you in, alerts security if your tag is
invalid etc. Wouldn't that be a lot easier to use, more secure, and probably
cheaper too?

~~~
vacri
With phones being constantly upgrades, lost, replaced, and coming in a variety
of operating systems, not to mention forgotten at home, left
uncharged/requiring power, can't be easily inspected in a standard manner by
security... smartphones are definitely not the way forward.

And an RFID is just another thing to carry, same as a card (ID cards often
have RFIDs in them anyway)

------
hubtree
Microsoft employees obviously need to spend more time rafting. That's what I'm
getting from this.

------
richardwhiuk
So what you've changed is to center the information (not a big deal, move a
whole load of useful information to the rear and use a more up to date logo.

Seems pointless. Microsoft have updated their logo four times in the past four
years. People update their favourite photo once every couple of months. It
also require that corporate directory services allow updating of photos
significantly more often, just so people can have a photo of themselves they
like. Finally you've ignored practicalities of printing logos. Sounds like a
typical design with no understanding of the limitations involved or
requirements.

Most of the offence here seems to be because you didn't like the photo
(because it's passport / security style instead of Faceboook / Instagram
esque?) and the 8 bit colour printing. Both of these are intrinsic to the
requirements caused by printing badges.

By the way, the logo was valid in 2012, not just 1998 -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft#Logo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft#Logo)

------
codex
\- The photo is the most important feature of the badge; for security reasons,
it should be as large as possible.

\- First and last names are not as important as one's email address

\- The logo is a security risk; should a badge go missing, it's a clue as to
where to (mis)use the badge.

~~~
mkaziz
It's already there on the current M'soft badge.

------
icambron
The only thing I don't like here is the way the last name is printed. I'm all
for emphasizing first names, but there's something about the way it's printed
that make me read it as a title. Like Ahmed is a Balkan at Microsoft.

------
aestra
So why is the employee id sensitive information?

Why do you care that your badge picture is ugly? Seriously? Do you also expect
to take a picture of you kayaking at the lake to the DMV?

------
exo_duz
Great job! I'm a big fan of minimalistic design which unfortunate to say most
of MS products aren't. Looking forward to more design ideas from you :)

------
bambax
God I hate badges.

Cattle wear numbers on their ears. Prisoners too, in some prison systems (but
not all). How can people accept to wear a _number_ on them, I don't know. Even
a name; what's a name? I resent being defined by my birth name. I have many
names, pseudonyms, handles, etc.

I'm not an employee so I never get a badge with my picture on it; when I go to
clients' sites they usually give me a "guest" badge that I promptly put in my
coat's pocket, only to give it back at the end of the day.

It's never happened that I needed it for anything anyway (and that includes
Microsoft (France)).

~~~
jrockway
The alternatives are:

Letting random people wander your building, including competitors.

Funneling everyone through some centralized reception area, so most doors
become exit-only.

Being small enough so that everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows "the
new guy" immediately.

~~~
bambax
Not true. Access control is different from having people _wear_ badges.

Access control may be a necessity (although in most companies here in France
if you can tell a good story to the receptionist she'll let you in without
even checking for an id; and if you show an id that's been obsolete for over
15 years, such as mine, and which would be, for this reason, trivial to fake,
she'll also let you in with a big smile and a joke about how different you
look from your picture).

But wearing a badge? Voluntarily? At all times? In nuclear reactors, perhaps
(I've never been there); but in most other businesses, I find this ridiculous
and insulting.

~~~
jrockway
It sounds like your company is happy with my first or second alternative. Many
aren't. Hence badges.

------
magic_haze
I don't understand why a badge is necessary in the first place. Won't NFC on a
phone suffice?

~~~
superuser2
In many settings where it is unlikely that everyone will know everyone else,
badges are used so that the absence of a badge signals someone who probably
doesn't belong. This is why you're typically required to wear them in a
visible place i.e. on a shirt pocket, lanyard, or on your waist.

Smartphone NFC is also orders of magnitude more complex and fragile compared
to traditional RFID tokens for opening doors. Saying that NFC would "suffice"
is nonsensical given that blank RFID-enabled badges run approximately $3 when
you're buying in bulk.

NFC requires that everyone who uses the system (incl. cleaning staff,
contractors, etc) has a compatible smartphone. It is braindead stupid to
assume that all of the people who need to open doors in your building:

1) own smartphones which are 2) not iPhones 3) always charged 4) not
experiencing a glitch 5) never left on a desk or in a bag

Keyfobs are a common alternative to badges and similarly cheap. Because they
are extremely simple single-purposes devices, they are, like badges, many
times more reliable than smartphones as access tokens.

However, most large corporations are going to use badges because 1) no need
for separate name tags, 2) quick and easy visual indication of who belongs and
who doesn't, and 3) you're not as likely to take it off and leave it somewhere
where it could get stolen or you might not have it when needed compared to
keys or a phone.

~~~
aestra
>However, most large corporations are going to use badges because 1) no need
for separate name tags, 2) quick and easy visual indication of who belongs and
who doesn't, and 3) you're not as likely to take it off and leave it somewhere
where it could get stolen or you might not have it when needed compared to
keys or a phone.

There's no reason you can't use both. I've also never worked anywhere that
didn't have RFID tokens to open the doors, they can't be very expensive and
they are reusable.

------
zorker
Every Microsoft employee is now on the Windows 9 development team?

That doesn't seem right.

------
fbeans
I literally couldn't care less about the design of a MS employee badge.

------
WalterBright
I'd make the name larger. Not everybody has 20 year old eyesight.

------
codex
This particular design doesn't take a lot of skill to create, and I'm not sure
the author knows what problem to solve. The triviality of the redesign should
be embarrassing to the creator.

------
johnward
Spending time to redesign something that doesn't matter. There is an MS joke
in here somewhere.

------
greatsuccess
The badges wont look like this with the standard security camera mugshot that
security offices use and the picture is probably too small to make them happy
as well.

Other than that nice job. I don't think it will be implemented.

~~~
flaxin
remember those OLD sites MS HAD - they got a lot of heat on HN and they got
removed...

------
Eleutheria
Nice! Now put some QRCodes on it so people can get bitcoin donations.

Oh, and NFC tag for auto check-in, computer log in, cafeteria, snacks, etc.

------
waxy
Just as an off topic, not even microsoft employees use outlook.

------
diestl
This is a real company man, holy crap!, spending your own time redesigning the
your employers badge is really quite sad.

Microsoft is known for hiring young gullible people and indoctrinating them
with the idea that MS is a good company rather than the reason the software
industry was held back for decades, using illegal tactics. If it could have
killed open source it would have.

------
joncp
It's a pretty badge, but unfortunately it's a security risk. Putting
identifying information on there is an opening for social engineering attacks.
The employee name and anything tying it to Microsoft shouldn't be on there.
Really, just the photo and badge id (not the employee ID) should be there. If
there's a "return to" address, it should be a nondescript PO box that's not in
Redmond.

Edit: Also, the employee number shouldn't be on there for the same reason.

