User Experiences: Evolving the blue “e”
“IE9 started from the premise that the modern web will deliver HTML5 experiences that feel more like native applications than sites. Building on hardware-accelerated SVG, canvas, video, audio, and text, developers will use the power of the whole PC to achieve great performance. On the modern web, developers will use the same markup across different HTML5 browsers.” – Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President, Windows Internet Explorer
Why start a post on designing the new Windows Internet Explorer 9 logo with a quote from our post on IE9’s Developer Platform Preview 4? As logo designer Paul Rand said in his book Design, Form and Chaos, “It is only by association with a product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning.”
The decision to evolve the logo, and the choices we made in the redesign were driven by the fundamental improvements in performance and standards support. Leading up to the Beta release, Platform Preview builds have been the viewport into the engineering behind Internet Explorer 9’s platform. For all of us, IE9 is about making web sites shine. It’s about the web sites you go to every day on your PC. It’s about the developers who make those sites for you. It’s about a browser that helps you accomplish your everyday tasks faster than ever before.
Before we describe what a fast and modern web means for our logo, let’s look at the history of the Internet Explorer mark.
The Internet Explorer Logo – 15 Years and Counting
In August, Internet Explorer celebrated its 15th anniversary. IE has been around since the early years of the consumer browser. At that time, the Internet meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Whether the online world was scary to you or was the coolest thing you’d ever seen, one thing was clear, the world was coming to you (and everyone else around the world) in ways you had never imagined. Content you never had access to became available on your PC, and it was only going to get bigger and better.
From the start, Microsoft chose the World to symbolize our browser, a metaphor for possibility and connection. And it is called the World Wide Web, after all. An early logo design consisted of the Windows symbol (circa Windows 95) and a circle representing a globe. In time, an orbiter was introduced, to represent speed and exploration.
Internet Explorer 1.0
Internet Explorer 2.0
Internet Explorer 3.0
Internet Explorer 4.0
Internet Explorer 5.0
Internet Explorer 6.0
Internet Explorer 7.0
Internet Explorer 8.0
Blue e = Internet
Soon after the early 1.0 and 2.0 versions of Internet Explorer shipped in 1995, the logo evolved to what has come to be known as ‘the way to the Internet’ – the blue e. The logo design conveys the metaphor of a globe (World Wide Web) and the exploration of that globe (the orbiter). The logo represents stability and integrity (a solid, well balanced and proportional e derived from the classic and timeless Helvetica typeface). The resulting system consists of a solid, stable, trusted color and shape (a blue circle).
The IE logo is well known as the way to the web. Internet cafés around the world use the IE logo on their signage to invite people in. Some of our teammates have snapped photos while passing cafés during their travels. The IE logo is right on the front of the buildings! It’s always fun to see that to many people, the blue e means the Internet.
Internet café, Mexico City
Internet café, Uganda
Internet café, Cambodia
Internet café, Edinburgh
Moving Forward
With Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7, came a new logo with a blue glass texture that had more dimension, an evolution of the familiar blue e. This new logo was developed to complement the design and personality of Windows Vista. Internet Explorer 8 retains the same logo, having also shipped during the Windows Vista timeframe. For Internet Explorer 9, it was time to evolve the logo to embody the new, high performance modern platform and user interface.
We started by thinking about what the IE8 logo (and prior IE logos) mean to our customers. When we asked customers what they think of when they see our logo, we heard professional, trusted, and familiar. Then we thought about what it means to take that trusted familiarity and make it faster and more modern.
ORIGIN OF THE LOGO
The original logo was drawn starting with the Helvetica Black typeface as a base. It’s a classic, timeless font that is derived from a typeface created more than a century ago. In The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst, this typeface is described as a “heavy un-modulated line and tiny aperture (which) evoke an image of uncultivated strength, force and persistence.” Helvetica has such a rich history as a typeface that a feature-length documentary was made about it in 2007. Designers have used Helvetica as a go-to typeface for decades – it continues to be a classic.
That all sounds like a winning plan, but what we wanted was to modernize the logo giving it a new sense of balance, legibility, energy, freshness, lighter weight, and sense of speed, while retaining the familiar e people have trusted for 15 years. We wanted to open up that tiny aperture of Helvetica Black in the same way we opened up the browser to all the power of Windows and PC hardware, and so we did.
WHAT DOES A LETTER SAY ABOUT ITSELF?
With the Windows typography team, we studied the letter e in a number of typefaces. We looked for the attributes we had set out to achieve: balance, legibility, fast, modern and lightweight.
A sampling of character studies of the letter e. Through these studies we were able to identify attributes of the e in different fonts that we wanted to recreate in our evolution of the IE8 logo.
DEPICTING MOVEMENT
We also wanted to better articulate a sense of forward movement, so the team made sketches of a variety of ways to view the orbiter which might represent a quicker movement. Below are some drawings of the orbiter in alternate configurations to the current. The e as a letterform has a lot of character and can at times resemble a face (with an eye and a mouth). Many of our explorations made the e look more like a person with a cape or a mask. Fun perhaps, but not what we’re looking for!
A sampling of sketches studying the shape of the e and the explorations of a forward moving orbiter element.
MODERNIZING THE E
Because of the familiarity and brand recognition of the current mark, we decided the basic structure and color would stay the same (a blue planet and yellow orbiter), we worked with the typographers on the Windows team to strengthen and modernize the form of the e.
First, we defined a shape for the e that focused on clarity and legibility: a true circle. Then we examined the details of the e. By reducing the contrast in stroke weight, we made it appear much lighter weight than the previous logo. The updated logo has more open negative space (counters) that maintain their presence at small sizes. The counters in the previous logo were very closed and disappeared at small scale. With no obvious horizontal or vertical variation in the character, the fluidity of the form is emphasized. The result is a simple, more open letterform.
Comparison studies of Chalet New York 1960 with Helvetica Bold. We decided to base the final letterform for the logo on Chalet for it’s more modern and open look.
The IE8 logo footprint compared with the new direction for IE9.
A FASTER ORBIT
We also updated the orbiter. To make it feel more alive, a small amount of transparency was added, and the stroke contrast and size of the shadow were decreased. Whereas the IE7/8 orbiter stops short of connecting to the e on the upper right side, the updated orbiter makes a full, more continuous connection. The updated orbiter is proportionally smaller when compared to the e than was its predecessor. These new proportions give more emphasis to the e, and give the logo a stronger presence.
IE7/8 logo
IE9 logo
The Finishing Touches
Once the e and orbiter designs had solidified, it was time to refine the details. We needed to polish the design and view it in the context of the interface and larger scale print materials.
In Jane’s post we talked about the new interface design for IE9. One of our goals for IE9 is to make sure sites shine by reducing the frame to only the controls most used for browsing the Web. We used a visual technique to allow the content to come forward by creating a single line of UI on the Windows 7 glass, creating a monochrome effect that allows the content of the web page to shine.
To reflect this in the logo, we focused on revealing only what is essential, reducing ornamentation that might call undue attention to the logo itself. To indicate speed and fluidity we applied more subtle shading and bevels than the IE 8 logo. The effect is an overall flatter and more lightweight appearance. To stay true to the Windows 7 aesthetic, we chose fresh colors and shades to complement the Windows 7 color schemes that IE9 is built on.
We paired the e with an updated logotype using Segoe, a font shared across Microsoft’s portfolio of brands. The new logotype layout places renewed emphasis on exploration, provides a simpler, more compact footprint and helps the version number stand out.
The final Windows Internet Explorer 9 logo
We hope you enjoy the new lighter weight and fresh modern look of Internet Explorer 9. More importantly, we hope you enjoy the web sites you know and love even more with IE9.
Mary-Lynne Williams, Senior User Experience Lead, Windows
Leslie MacNeil, User Experience Designer, Windows
Marty Hall, User Experience Designer II, Windows
Comments
Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Great, a pretty logo. Such a big help. Maybe, instead of messing about with something so superficial as a logo it would be better if you concentrated on the product. Having just downloaded a 35MB installer which it's self then downloaded a further 50 or so MB just to remove IE8 (thanks for informing me that was going to happen) & replace it with a Chrome clone. Then I find I have to download a further application in order to submit feedback for the beta release, which I do, then I'm told that my windows Live ID isn't configured to allow me to submit feedback. So, in summary, already hate IE9. CongratulationsAnonymous
September 16, 2010
The guy who wrote this P.R. article did much better job than the guy who designed the anemic logo. BTW could you get these typeface guys to look at the text rendering. It seems like ClearType is broken in IE9 :)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
David, I am glad that you like the logo. Everything else, though, is an obvious troll and off topic.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I love it, logo and browser alike. And I love this sort of design details-oriented blog post. Keep it up. :)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
> "an obvious troll and off topic." Yes, because a 3-page article about why the IE9 logo is a lighter shade of blue is totally not off-topic regarding a web browser (which, as David says, is a one-year-late safari clone).Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I love the new IE 9 logo... as well as the IE 9 browser itself. I don't know why the trolls always have to flock to these posts? It's not like they're troll attempts are going to sway anyone away from the new Internet Explorer :)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I am disturbedAnonymous
September 16, 2010
Obligatory Raymond Chen post blogs.msdn.com/.../9292088.aspxAnonymous
September 16, 2010
Obligatory Raymond Chen article: The programmers don't design skins; they just make skins possible blogs.msdn.com/.../9292088.aspxAnonymous
September 16, 2010
Obligatory Raymond Chen article: The programmers don't design skins; they just make skins possible blogs.msdn.com/.../9292088.aspxAnonymous
September 16, 2010
I always find it very interesting to see the design decisions behind such seemingly small aspects of any application. Thanks for sharing them! While I won't be using IE9 (as I mostly use OS X), I enjoyed reading about it over the past months and look forward to the final release. Keep up the good work! (And thanks for making the web a little bit better with this new and modern version of IE.)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Blue e == the Internet... this is the exact sentiment that really pi$$es off those wanting an open web. We certainly know end users are not always techy thus they don't know a better browser exists. With IE9 you may not need to fear anymore but please tone down the "we are the internet" its very condescending to those of us that have been building for the open internet for the last 5-10 years... IE may have the biggest share of the market but the big-headed attitude is why consumers get frustrated with Microsoft. I am glad that time was spent on the logo though - it will help hammer home the fact that there were free cycles that could have been used to fix the bugs in the browser that in turn were actually wasted on picking colors for the e. Oh well, not like we expected you to actually fix the bugs (you proved during IE7 and IE8 development that that was not your focus)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Thanks for sharing this! I have to agree with Codar: I love seeing how a design evolves and what decisions went into it. More of that is highly welcome! ;) SvenAnonymous
September 16, 2010
I don't like the new logo. Despite all the effort that went into it, it just looks like someone opened up the IE8 logo in Photoshop, cranked up the brightness and called it a day.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
'Trusted' Ha!Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I like the new logo. The e is synonymous with the web, not because Microsoft said it was, but from years of having the best browser in the late 90s. @simon really ... you think the designers that worked on this logo should have spent some free cycles fixing browser bugs instead? With logic like that, it's a really good thing that you aren't working on any of the bugs.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
i hate to break it to you simon but if you took the graphic design folk off of logo work it wouldn't speed up or slow down development of IE one bit, unless you actually tried to get them to imrpovove the rest of the browser, in which case it would makes things take longer. because you'd have to teach them how to program. because they're graphic designers, not programmers.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I could care less about the logo. But, I will say as a long time Opera and FF user, IE9 has finally done it for me. Well done Microsoft! First Win7, then Security Essentials, and now IE9... you guys are running on all 8 cylinders now. Keep up the great work!Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Offtopic snarky comment: Removing the progress bar from the status bar is deranged and criminal. Please bring it back in the next release. This is why Windows XP and IE8 was last good pieces of software. Microsoft removes features like a fad. What a complete joke IE9 UI is. Trading features for sake of minimalism. Status bar can be turned on but it doesn't have the progress bar. I feel like shooting the GUI people.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
The "progress bar" was always a lie, since there's no way to tell the actual overall progress until you have the HTTP headers from all of the page's elements, and even that assumes that the HTTP headers specify Content-Length.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
It looks like a blue "e" with a halo, as if Internet Explorer is somehow the savior of the Internet. Makes me sick.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
@All of the people complaining about time being spent on the graphic... there are multiple people and teams developing the product... not everyone is a developer and not everyone is an artist. Grow up people, it's pretty childish to come on a site and post such nonsense complaints.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
All it takes is just a Helvetica kind of big e that stands out - and it resembles IE, or the Internet in general. In fact, it doesn't even need to be blue or have an orbit at all :-) I was very surprised as I discovered this, but it works - IE comes to mind immediately: http://amzn.com/0230614787Anonymous
September 16, 2010
IE team, this can be the best IE ever if you don't remove any IE6/IE7/IE8 features and keep the streamlined stuff optional for power users. The key to making successful software is to add features, not remove stuff once you ship it in a previous version. Then everyone remains happy. It wasn't necessary to tell Microsoft how to make successful software but you jumped the shark on this one. Too much minimalism. You are in general completely and slowly alientating your power users by limiting customizability and "simplifying" stuff.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I am very pleased with IE9! My only issue is about the Status bar, I like to know what is the real link behind each hyperlink, but if I enable the statusbar there are a lot of unused pixels. Something like the Chrome approach is missingAnonymous
September 16, 2010
My Daily Tagxedo blog today was about Internet Explorer 9. I used Dean's announcement as text, and the IE9 logo as shape, and get this Tagxedo word cloud: daily.tagxedo.com/september-17-internet-explorer-9-betaAnonymous
September 16, 2010
@Erwin: With the status bar disabled, you should still see a notification of the target URL appear at the bottom of the window when hovering over a link. @bonelyfish: There are often legal and trademark issues behind the branding of products.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
This logo looks nicer than the last one and certainly more lightweight. I'm still wondering why that translucent yellow area to the left of the yellow ring is still present though. As far as I can tell, you're trying to give the impression that the ring is spinning around the logo without quite succeeding (probably because that effect is missing on the opposing side of the ring). It wasn't really noticeable in pre-IE7 IE logos; with the advent of large desktop icons in Vista though, that part of the logo is much more prominent and almost seems like a design error (particularly in the IE7/8 logos).Anonymous
September 16, 2010
You need to prepare a list of stuff in IE9 vs IE8 that was removed/trimmed/streamlined/simplified and ask users which features they want back instead of relying on users to request every removed feature thru Connect and this blog. Many users never try beta software and some others don't realize that lost feature x until RTM when it's too late.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
So to summarize things, you guys REMOVED features in IE9 instead of hiding them and making them optional. IE8 was a GOOD release guys, IE7 and IE8 were huge steps in the right direction, except that they didn't offer the required competitive standards support that IE9 does or the amazing GPU acceleration. You just needed to add features and maybe improve upon the IE8 design to appease the clean, simple crowd. Instead, you're only satisfying the "less is more" crowd now and ignoring the power users who loved the customizability and advanced features of IE8.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I have to say this is the first version that removes many many IE features of previous versions. From IE4-IE6, it was the golden era of Windows in the 90s where features were always preserved for the greatest backward compatibility. But even with so many features removed from Vista and again from Windows 7, IE surprisingly scraped through and didn't drop many features (only Image toolbar, Inline AutoComplete, obsolete technologies like Active Desktop, CDF, DirectAnimation etc which is now revived). IE9 has started making radical GUI changes like Vista/7 and although I agree that the redesign look good and is cleaner, features should not be dropped. For this reason, I might not use IE9 now at all if IE continues along this "simplify and dumb down path".Anonymous
September 16, 2010
@Troy: The recent success of Apple has shown that simplicity is key in this ever more complex world. More than ever, people want clean software that's a pleasure to use, maintains stabilty over time, "just works", never gets in the way (doesn't display silly message boxes or UAC prompts ;-), is fast, secure, adds a personal touch ("It's my IE"), and has a polished UI. Windows 7 follows these principles, while Vista violated many of them, and you can see the results. Thus, it's definitly the right direction MS takes with IE9, which seems to follow the same principles. However, the PC (in contrast to the Mac) has always been a tool for power users, too. They might be just a small fraction of all users, but they are the fanboys, lots of them are developers on the platform, they assist their peers, are the early adopters, administer the IT infrastructure, etc. MS should in no way neglect these users by completely taking away features or APIs. It might be tempting because this is such a small fraction, but it's one that's vital for the overall success of Windows in the marketplace. Usage statistics are helpful to decide which directions to take regarding functionality and the UI, but MS should not forget that the 5% least used features in IE might be the ones that are the critically important ones for power users. For example, Windows PowerShell is a major step forward that leverages the entire Windows platform for power users and administrators, though it might be used in just 0.3% of all Windows sessions. In a nutshell, I think MS should continue the new direction regarding simplicity and design, but - in contrast to the Mac - should continue to offer functionality for power users (and this means more than just keyboard shortcuts). This enhanced functionality might be hidden by default, but users should be able to activate it if desired. Example: IE9 should in fact display the address bar and tabs as a single row (best for 90% of users). However, the 5% of users who regularly have 10 tabs open should be able to display the tabs below the address bar as before. It would make them happy and more productive. Otherwise, it could lead to frustration ("ah, this tiny tab bar is so cramped on this subnotebook"), and they might abandon IE. Satisfy the "normal" users by default, but offer enhanced functionality for the power users - that's the direction MS should take. Speaking with Alan Cooper: If you have 3 personas you design for, add a 4th one that represents a power user. And this power user will find out how to enable the hidden settings - if they exist!Anonymous
September 16, 2010
The beta version seems to include an old versionn of the logo. The blue used to fill the "e" was too light. I did notice the change some time ago, and I expect to see the same change on the BETA 2 version because the current logo, well, takes too much attention :-)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Is it possible to get a large version of the logo? vector, svg.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
So far just few things missing: 1)nolonger possible to see how many elements to be downloaded - some sites have delayed loading or simply have lot of them and it is not possible in bet to say whether element will be dl or if ti is missing completly(like js serving site in RZ) - could be done like target of link (tooltip-like) 2)menubar - can be sort of replaced back by command bar,but menubar didn't have much of free space to right like command bar.(needed a times due to wrong encoding of pages,while having right-click disabled) As for logo,I couldn't see difference until this blogpost. But it was interesting insight how such logo was produced.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
I once found the e logo used as a decorative element on a ferris wheel in vienna: www.flickr.com/.../4596668226Anonymous
September 16, 2010
It was bound for a change, alright - and all the exposed reasons make sense: lighter, sleeker... However, when I saw it, I could only think: "washed out". Because you forgot ONE detail: It will primarily be seen on a computer screen. It will probably be sized smaller than a postage stamp. So, details like you exposed here will be diluted by the fuzziness of the pixel grid, and will leave behind only the impression of a bleached and emaciated logo. Want to stay on theme? Why not a white 'e' with a dark blue outline and a solid yellow orbit? THAT would match the trend for "flat" icons you decided to enforce in Win7, while retaining the original logo's presence!Anonymous
September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
The new IE9 logo looks really ugly in Windows 7 taskbar. Its much more lighter than other logos and its look like the application is disabled or something like that :(( The old one (IE8) is much better.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
To be honest, I think the IE 8 logo looked much better. The new one on my Win 7 taskbar just doesn't seem to fit in with the other icons as nicely. Other than that, I'm enjoying using IE 9 thus far and if the good work is kept up I might switch back from Google Chrome permanently.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
It's not bad, i like it, but it does not follow aero icons guidelines. Like new WordPad icon + Paint + Calculator + Windows Explorer icon + Sticky Notes. All these icons are nice, but inconsistent with rest of the aero icons. Regardinf new IE9 icon, it could use little more sharpness and contras when pinned on taskbar. But large version is nice..Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Hyper-Ultra Facelift Suggestion -->> Yo guys, now i got great idea :) Take from W7 imageres.dll + shell32.dll and redraw majority of Aero icons similar way like IE9 logo or other W7 icons. We will have all icons in new lighter/pastel colors :) And it will be more consistent :))) (ama fakin genius :)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
The shape and spacing of the new e is better, but as others have said, it is just a tad too bright/washed out. The taskbar icon is also just slightly too big, and although it makes it stand out compared to most of the other icons, it's not in a good way - it look inconsistent and out of place.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
If XP support was going away tomorrow I'd agree with Microsoft not support IE9 on XP...but it's not. And Microsoft should acknowledge "supported" products. They're just lazy. IE9 could have supported the XP environments and still had all the bells and whistles for 7. Google did it. It's not an all or nothing world anymore.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
Replying to Brian 16 Sep 2010 3:38 PM David, I am glad that you like the logo. Everything else, though, is an obvious troll and off topic. Not a troll but my genuine experience & opinion, if you don't care for it that's your problem. Feel free to link to where I should be posting experience of using IE9, as I say, the feedback add-on won't allow me to submit feedback directly.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
@ innerHTML Hello folks, my name is innerHTML. Since I was invented by Microsoft I have been documented on MSDN and Technet, but unfortunately some minority browser makers felt that they shold copy me, as I seem to be a very good idea, but implement me in a distorted fashon in their makings. But ripping a good idea off is not the only crime against the majority of internet users they commited, but the also went ahead to a collection of Microsoft competitors, and now try to have me standardized in a different fashion from the original inventor. So I share the fate of other Microsoft inventions, that have been picked up by its competitors, and now they feel the necessity to make Microsoft look bad. It is a very transparent scheme, but still there are those who are blinded by their hate of microsoft. It is a sad thing really, but that is the world we are living in, where the rip-offs seem to shine, and the true inventors are not even mentioned in the footnotes. Yours truly innerHTMLAnonymous
September 16, 2010
I love firefox.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Worst Browser of all timeAnonymous
September 16, 2010
@Harry Richter - SRSLY? that's the best you've got? - its the "other" browsers fault for implementing it correctly and not disabling it on some elements because IE's HTML parser has bugs!? Are you also suggesting that other browsers should have implemented getElementById(id) incorrectly because IE borked it up too? IE made innerHTML "read-only" on certain elements... not because it was the smart thing to do, not because no one would ever want to populate a table or a select list but because that was the politically correct way of saying "oh boy our internal API/HTML parser has issues with this content cause it was written badly - rather than fix it, lets claim that these elements are read-only so that when developers complain that this doesn't work we have documentation to point them to for CYA purposes" The bug, and the internal cause of the bug has been published and known for a decade - the disgrace is that it hasn't been fixed, hasn't even been targeted for a release, and no one at MSFT is willing to even discuss this openly. As a software developer myself - if my API had such glaring issues I'd want to be very public about admitting there is an issue and very public about when the fix will be made - it's embarrassing to hide in the corner and pretend that its not an issue.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
someone: You clearly missed the memo, but XP has been out of "support" for everything except security patches for a very long time now. Upgrade to a modern OS, get a modern browser.Anonymous
September 16, 2010
Does seem a very large post just to say the logo has been updated in a way that, though it does look good, isn't otherwise a major update on the WIE7/8 logo (and is still only an evolution of the original IE3 logo. That said, the contrast one the new one does make it look a tad odd compared to current Windows Vista/7 icon pallets.) I do agree with posters here who say that in order to better represent how different WIE9 is behind the scenes that a new icon should be considered. After all, the orbit around the current one suggests to me that the WWW revolves around Internet Explorer -- which surely is now at odds with Microsoft's new "the web should come before the browser" theme? Retrospectively I do find it odd reading what the team say the old logo was designed to convey -- surely an icon of a world with the blue "e" made up of connected oceans with green land around it then the orbit going around that would have made more sense? I struggle to see exactly how much a flat blue "e" can be seen to represent a globe? (Though similarly how does a Windows flag inside a flat circle suggest this?)Anonymous
September 16, 2010
@Markus Tacker: Cool image-- thanks for sharing!Anonymous
September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
I like the logo. I know that it will be consistent with the Windows Live Essentials 2011 icons.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
As much as I like the IE9 beta, I find the logo looks a bit washed out and lacks that richness that makes the IE7 & IE8 logos jump out at you. It's a bit like when they decide to change the theme tunes on a TV program and just lose all the strength of the original.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Wow, so many haters. It is so true that you can never make everyone happy. I like ie9... well done ie teamAnonymous
September 17, 2010
I'm use WINDOWS 7 x64 ! IE9 x64 works fine on my WINDOWS 7 x64 ! But the x86 version does not work on my WINDOWS 7 x64 ! And Appearance notice "Internet Explorer has stopped working" (Run IE9 x86 on WINDOWS 7 x64)Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Just locking at the logos, IE 5 was a big step forward, then IE 6 was a big step back…Anonymous
September 17, 2010
@Randall: If innerHTML is specified one way in MSDN, and if Microsoft is the originator of innerHTML, then it really stands to reason that any browser that doesn't impliment it as specified in MSDN is not following specification, and therefore their implimentation, not IE's, is broken. I don't see it having anything to do with the phaser.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
I like the new icon though your most important face to the world it the GUI, please fix it and make the association a positive one like you folks have with the renewed emphasis on standards compliance. What was the point of Mozilla releasing Firefox instead of simply sticking with the Mozilla Suite? Customization! If anything you folks should work on it and work on it FAST! Make the work on the new icon and standards compliance only parts of the progress made, not all of it please.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
Nice to see MS working so hard. Maybe if you guys had put all the effort into improving your browser after 6 came out instead of declaring victory and closing shop, your market share wouldn't be going down, down, down.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
@Kevin Tran: As mentioned in the keynote on Wednesday, 75% of Internet Explorer crashes are caused by buggy browser add-ons. As most browser add-ons are only written to run in 32bit IE, that may explain why you have problems only with that version. To determine if a buggy addon is causing your crash, 1.Start IE in No Add-ons mode, either by right-clicking the Desktop icon, or clicking START | RUN and typing: iexplore.exe -extoff 2.Determine if IE fails. 3.If not, use Tools | Manage Add-ons to disable all browser extensions and toolbars. 4.Restart IE and reenable browser extensions one-by-one. 5.Once you've found a broken extension, contact the manufacturer and ask for an update. (See also: blogs.msdn.com/.../678113.aspx and support.microsoft.com) If that doesn't help, it's possible that there's a problem with your graphics card driver. You might want to ensure that you have the latest drivers for your graphics card, and if that doesn't help, try starting the Internet Options Panel from the system control panel. On the Advanced Tab, tick the "Use Software Rendering instead of GPU rendering" option at the top. thanks!Anonymous
September 17, 2010
If all the people whining about "time spent on a logo instead of fixing blah blah blah..." are the same people that keep harping on about an "open web", then I don't think there has ever been any greater arguement that the web should be completely closed. Clearly an "open web" is a bad idea, if it's proponents are really so sub-humanly idiotic to think that the people that work on Trident/etc are the same as those that made the logo.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
yo, that icon is the avatar for @ie on twitter. i asked them if it was the ie9 logo and they said no it was just the usual standard logo. ya'll are getting your schtuff together, yay, i'm all for it. you need more congruency throughout the organization.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
As some already mentioned, the form is really very nice but IMHO the styling looks a bit amateurish (e.g. compared to the IE7/8 logo). For example, it looks as if you have used just a single radial gradient for the blue "e".Anonymous
September 17, 2010
BTW, the "e" in the last couple of examples differs so I am not sure which is actually the final version.. :)Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Tell me IE team why would I install a browser on my Windows 7 that removes features? Doesn't make any sense. I will remain on IE8.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
@Wow: "Clearly an "open web" is a bad idea, if it's proponents are really so sub-humanly idiotic to think that the people that work on Trident/etc are the same as those that made the logo." So, just because a few idiots post here, an "open web" is a bad thing? Twisted logic. Actually, following your logic, pretty much everything is a bad idea, as I can't think of something popular that doesn't have stupid people / trolls among its supporters (and that includes IE).Anonymous
September 17, 2010
@hAl: This is a known bug, thanks. Lead your query with a ? to avoid that problem. E.g. ? IE site:blogs.msdn.com/ie thanks!Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Such an interesting blog post! I am a big fan of typography and how it influences culture within business organizations. This progressional article really made my afternoon! Thanks for sharing.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Switch to Chrome and all of your worries will go away.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Just Amazing! Nothing else.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Ah, the "?". That is so old school IE6 ;-)Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Make it easy for all. How, you have two customers. The power user and the light user. I think most people agree. So why not just make a workspace mode for users to switch between power mode and light mode. Power mode will shift tab to make room for more tabs, bla bla bla (all the complains from the power user) and keep the current configuration as the light mode (and make the light mode the default). Yes, the default because the power user is techy enought to find the mode switching feature while the light user will not even bother. Problem solved. I am a power user but frankly, we use more than we ought to. Look at our wireless network since smart phone emerged, a bunch of usless traffic clogging the network in the name of power users. What im trying to say is that power users (with all their ego, myself included) tend to use more than they really need. So, in the end, this might be good. So those screaming bring back the power, ask you self this: Do you really need 10+ tab to make get your work done?Anonymous
September 17, 2010
@Stifu 17 Sep 2010 9:06 AM : The only bugs that should be considered are those cases where IE inmplementationc differs from MSDN document - after all innerhtml is their creation. The only other case is HTML5,but unless it is sufficently close,it'll be nightmare anyway. Every other "bug" which simpyl desribes differencies from other browsers are (ironically) incompatibilites - most probabyl intentional - from original. From IE. To argue anything else is either idiocy or FUD as it ignores history and facts. And fixing bugs in feature as old as innerhtml is compatibility nightmare...Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Jeeez! This site is highly confusing for people with astigmatism! LOLAnonymous
September 17, 2010
I remember an early IE logo, depicted as the "spinner" when loading a page. It showed the Windows logo falling diagonally downwards, with clouds passing by in the background as if it was going to crash into the ground any second. I never watched the animation long enough to see it actually hit the ground (if one existed) ... since it didn't support a proxy it didn't go anywhere. It wasn't hard for the competition to win me over :-)Anonymous
September 17, 2010
@David Thank you for installing the IE9 Beta and helping us to make it better through your feedback! We have identified an issue with the Send Feedback tool for users of the IE9 Beta on 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, and Server 2008 who have also installed the Windows Live Essentials Beta. Enhancements made to the Windows Live Essential Beta prevent the Feedback tool from running – you will receive a message entitled “Please install the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant” with a link to ”Get the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant”. When you try to download and install from the link, it will say you already have a more recent version installed. This issue has been reported by users in Connect, and we will update those bugs as we investigate the issue. To provide the IE team with your feedback, go directly to the IE Feedback Program (connect.microsoft.com/ie) on Microsoft Connect. This is the same location where all entries from the Feedback Tool are logged. You can use it to view, edit, and comment on bugs, and to see the results of our investigation. You need to register on Connect to use the Send Feedback tool and the IE Feedback Program. Registering is a quick and easy process described here: connect.microsoft.com/.../content.aspx. Once registered, you can go directly to the Feedback page (connect.microsoft.com/.../feedback), search for your issue, and submit new feedback if it is not found. The Feedback page has additional information on the process. Your feedback is very important to us and much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to let us know about your experiences with the IE9 Beta. Justin Saint Clair Program Manager, Internet ExplorerAnonymous
September 17, 2010
Looks good at large sizes; looks strange in the taskbar.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
I agree with Critic etc., the logo is cool, but too bright compared to the rest of the taskbar. Also, what's that with the wasted space on top of the browser? In FF and Chrome I tend to have at least 10-120 tabs open, that's going to be a mess with the little space the tabs get. Why isn't the adressbar above the tabs, I mean there's enough space up there. It might not be as pretty, but it would surely make more efficient use of the available space. Right now I still think the Chrome design is more practical, and FF4 can be configured to be similar to Chrome (though there are still lots of bugs in their beta).Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Actually, the new logo has much worse sharpness at small sizes (16x16 / 32x32) than IE8's logo had. And the yellow arc doesn't blend well with the darker background, giving a bad first impression of unfinished design work. IE8's logo win. PS.: please improve that ugly interface with toolbars/panels still looking like ancient C++ code. Time for HTML stylized interface like Opera. Btw, all Windows 7 programs are using Office 2010 interface... IE is not consistent at all: not consistent with the present or the future. And the current tab system is slow to open many tabs as were IE8 --- in Vista at least.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
I like how people are commenting about the browser in an article about the logo. first: different team makes the browser than designs the badging second: different team designs the UI than designs the engines underneith the IE team took usage statistics, determined how people actually used the browser and catored to them. Not removing unused features creates bloatware. How many power users used IE7 and IE8? really? How much customization do you really need to do to your browser? I don't like apple, but I like their philosophy of having stuff "just work". I like skinning, but I also think that solid work should be put into the default skin. As for the logo, I think it looks nice. The colour could be a little less saturated to match the task bar. As for the UI: I like it. Its fast, does the things I need to and doesnt show me all kinds of stuff I don't care about. Kadajawi has a point though. I often have many tabs open. There is not much space for tabs in the tab area. It would be nice if you could tear out an entire tab group to a new window, rather than just one tab at a time. This is the wrong place to post feedback, though. As for the engines: They're good. Fast. Compliant. Do what I need them to do. Now if only web pages would be compliant. Its especially funny with webpages that see I'm running IE and expect it to be IE6... so they serve out a broken page on purpose.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
whatever, i'll never get to see it. We're still using 6 at work!Anonymous
September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
You can dress it up anyway you want but at the end of the day its still the same mediocre product that Microsoft keeps feeding its blind customer base. Sad really.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
I for one am excited about this product. Competition as we have seen in the past is great for the industry. After initially switching to firefox then finally chrome. I really hope after trying out IE9 I come back full circle to where I started. So far what I have seen with the hardware acceleration support has impressed me. Now if you can match Chrome's startup speed and page to page loading speed I am sold.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
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September 17, 2010
The logo does look a bit off. Although I'm sure I'll get used to it with time but I think it need to be reworked.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Microsoft, I'm a Firefox user at the moment and before that I was using Chrome. Let me put it this way. I HATE using Firefox and Chrome. Why? Firefox is too slow at the start and I like using my browser in full screen and after all these years of development Firefox hasn't been able to come up with a solution to simply let the browser start in full screen mode. Chrome is too greedy when it comes to using my computer's resources. Yes it may be secure but at what price? I really want Microsoft to step up its game so I can go back to using IE. I LOVE IE8 and I really want to use it but its too slow when it comes to processing the page. Its pretty fast at startup, its great with resources. It isn't the most standard compliant browser but I can live with that. I wish someone in Redmond is reading my plea because I'm in a abusive relationship with my browsers and I want to be saved by IE.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
David, i have no idea what are u talking about! i had none of those probelms .. didnt ask me for my windows live id or any of the trolling u just said.. it just installed - download and thats it, i was on the web with IE9.. like the new logo btw guys..Anonymous
September 17, 2010
I have to say the first time I saw the logo I thought it was a temporary logo that was being used for the beta. As someone said earlier it looks like the logo was taken into Photoshop and the brightness increased (a little too much). I realize that many companies go though the marketing steps outlined in this post to evolve their imagery and messaging but I have to said that I'm non-plussed about the outcome. It's looks bland and washed out and to me does not reflect the major changes and improvements that have been implemented in this version of the browser. In summary - should do better.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Obligatory full disclosure: Mac user, Apple fanboy. I like the IE9 logo. The previous two versions looked very much like Microsoft had said "Oh, Apple seems to make shiny work...let's add a gradient, and a drop shadow, and a screen gradient overlay at the top for that glass effect, and another gradient for good measure, and have the orbiter go foof off to the side! There! It's shiny and glassy and 3D, just like Apple!" It was, let's be honest, pretty bad. This new logo, on the other hand, matches Microsoft's overall graphical style quite nicely. It is very identifiably Windows. It lacks slightly in depth, and I think having the logotype be so huge is rude ("HEY! HEY GUYS! DID YOU KNOW? IT'S *WINDOWS INTERNET EXPLORER 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!") but these are relatively minor concerns when contrasted with the previous iterations. I'm not sure it's ready to be called "final" just yet, but I think it's a very good improvement on what came before it.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
I really like the new logo, and the new UI for Internet Explorer 9. However, I liked the first and last logos in the 'directing movement' section even more. If the new logo doesn't work out, maybe you could give those other ones a chance.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
@Microsoft "... an updated logotype using Segoe, a font shared across Microsoft’s portfolio of brands ..." Can you go through all of WIE9's dialogs and the Options Control Panel applet and update everything to Segoe UI? Seems really inconsistent still seeing Tahoma (and, I'm sure in some old modal dialogs, MS Sans Serif) in WIE8 on Windows 7. The WIE9 beta continues with the same fonts in most places (though hopefully the modal dialog removal has cured some of it). Also, I thought the Wizard 97 format had been abandoned in favour of Aero Wizard now? (Main differences: the language, control layout (back button in top left), no introduction page). However the Certificate Import/Export Wizard is still in the old format. (Not to mention the Forgotten Password Wizard in Windows 7). It's acceptable on old carry-over tools like the IEXPRESS self-extract cabinet maker, but not for new apps or new OSs.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
May be off topic but has anyone in IE Team noticed IE Favorites sidebar response to mouse wheel movement to that of Opera/FF while a page is loading. Sidebar becomes unresponsive to mouse wheel. That seems because Fav sidebar reacts as an internal part of web page. FF/Opera fav/bookmark bar is independent of page loading and you can anytime scroll favs/bookmarks regardless of the page.Anonymous
September 17, 2010
Thank you for sharing this information. It's always nice to see the thought process that goes in to design and all of the considerations that were taken. To the trolls: Why does this always have to be a ie vs. safari vs. ff vs. chrome vs. opera battle? They are all different, yes, I agree too!Anonymous
September 18, 2010
Just Improve IE please,logo isn't very important.just approach IE with other browoser(like FireFox). Thank you.Anonymous
September 18, 2010
I can't leave feedback. It tells me to install the sign-in assistant. When install the sign-in assistant, it tells me I've already got a newer version already installed.Anonymous
September 18, 2010
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September 18, 2010
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September 18, 2010
Can you post the SVG version of the logo please? I would like to use it for my clipart on my blog...Anonymous
September 18, 2010
I love all thenegative comments about IE. I have used almost every popular browser and IE is still my favorite. Everyone says it is "buggy" but it's the only browser that will correctly render 99% of the web without needing to be tweeked or have a plugin installed. If I am using firefox or opera or safari wrong just tell me but I am definitely sticking with IE till something better is, if ever, developed.Anonymous
September 18, 2010
Is Microsoft going to go after those Internet Cafe's for using their trademark?Anonymous
September 18, 2010
First, I want to say I was really pleasantly surprised with IE9. Having been so fed up with the previous iterations that I switched to Chrome and never looked back, I was saying "Hallelujah" already when I saw the clean new UI without the mess of toolbars. Although I wish the icons had been moved into the taskbar instead of beside the address bar, it's still a big improvement. Only other suggestion: an extensions gallery. Microsoft has such a huge developer base that it woldn't be that hard, would it? That's one of the only reasons I split my time between IE9 and Chrome. Anyway, back to the logo...I still the that the IE7 and IE8 logo was the crown jewel of browser logos; it was so cool-looking. IE9 just doesn't have the same aesthetis feel. It's too light, and the E is too emphasized. Everyone likes the streak, why did Microsoft not emphasize it more?Anonymous
September 18, 2010
I really wish this much work was put into the bing logo.....it's by far one of the worst logos ever created.....it's the single most reason I never use it. Every time I see it I cringe!Anonymous
September 18, 2010
I prefer the old logo. The new one looks ok large but I think it doesn't look as good on the taskbar or on the HTML file icons especially at 16x16.Anonymous
September 18, 2010
It's mind-boggling that people are STILL using internet explorer, when it comes dead last in every speed and security benchmark out there.Anonymous
September 18, 2010
It's mind-boggling that trolls didn't still get bored on this blog,yet they are not funny nor telling truth.Anonymous
September 18, 2010
IE 9 will be better than Safari 5 for just one thing: Spell Check as you write. Safari will underline in red all misssspellingssss. Which is great when updating your status in facebook and writing emails in hotmail. I like just to right clik for corrections. It easier and faster than the regular IE spell checker.Anonymous
September 19, 2010
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September 19, 2010
Helvetica is a font shipped with Mac OS, vastly inferior to Arial and MS Sans Serif, how could it make it into the Internet Explorer logo?! Good, that you finally dealt with this issue.Anonymous
September 19, 2010
The most dramatic reinvention of IE would be to drop the word "internet" and have the world know it as "Explorer".Anonymous
September 19, 2010
when do they implement the helvetica in their OS? hopefully waiting for CSS3 and HTML5 integration!Anonymous
September 19, 2010
David said: >replace it with a Chrome clone it's natural because the optimization processes which started from different initial points converged to almost the same solution it means that we arrived at really optimal point to this date to article authors: impressive work i've always belived in MS designersAnonymous
September 19, 2010
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September 20, 2010
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September 22, 2010
IE 9 even better. IE9 now have been playing to the damage ... especially the effectiveness of speedAnonymous
September 22, 2010
IE 9 even better. IE9 now have been playing to the damage ... especially the effectiveness of speedAnonymous
September 22, 2010
IE 9 even better. IE9 now have been playing to the damage ... especially the effectiveness of speedAnonymous
September 22, 2010
I actually like how IE has taken a page out of Chrome's book. My favorite part of Chrome is using the address bar to search, and now we can do it in IE. Browsers, please copycat each other's best features! Eventually this will end up with all of them being great.Anonymous
September 22, 2010
I don't like the new logo. It seems dull and pale compared to the former, shiny and more colorful logo. And I'd say the same thing about the new browser interface: near-absence of colors, matte buttons, spiky arrows, uncolored icons (or no icons at all in menus)... Is this IE9 or IE1 ? Sorry, but I can't say I'm impressed by the visuals; seems more like a throwback than an evolution. Fortunately, the increased speed and features save the day.Anonymous
September 23, 2010
Bad, bad logo.Anonymous
September 24, 2010
They peaked at IE5. With the logo anyway. Possibly not with the typography.Anonymous
September 25, 2010
Really nice, I like all the blue e logos. One of my favorite logos of all time. ♥Anonymous
September 26, 2010
I really like this new logo. Much more appealing than the other browsers' logo.Anonymous
September 26, 2010
I know a few other people have already mentioned this - but would it be possible if some sort of vector was made available? Resizing a 256*256 image doesn't always result in a perfectly clear image, and it would be useful to have one.