One of the main people in charge of the design of the Xbox 360 console, both inside and outside, has apparently left his leadership position at Microsoft"s Xbox division. News.com reports via unnamed sources that Don Coyner, who until now was the leader of the Xbox design and experience group is no longer in that position. There"s no word as to why he left although the story does say he is still with Microsoft in some unknown capacity. Microsoft officially won"t comment on the News.com story.
Coyner started with Microsoft in 1999 in the newly created Xbox division as its director of marketing, two years before the first Xbox console was launched by Microsoft in 2001. Later, he headed up the design and experience team for the Xbox 360 console where he helped to create a unified design for not just the Xbox 360 console, which launched in 2005, but also for the design of its user interface.
Coyner"s replacement will apparently be Emma Williams who helped lead the team that designed the new Xbox Dashboard user interface. That new design, which incorporates the Metro-style UI in Windows Phone 7 and the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, launched to all Xbox 360 consoles earlier in December. It"s likely that Williams will be leading the team to help design the next version of Microsoft"s Xbox console.