Windows Insider article published on Oct 9, 2020
Michael Gillett, a Windows Insider MVP from London, has always loved art and began fusing that with his passion for technology at a young age. As a teen, he moved on from drawing and painting to improving the design of website templates by editing their CSS in Notepad.
“This really excited me, as it bridged my passions of art and engineering,” Michael said. “Since then, I’ve always been passionate about exploring and learning new technologies that impact the user experience, whether it’s the way things look, how they function, or even their performance.”
His passion for technology led to a successful career in tech. Over the years, he’s developed in jQuery, C#, AngularJS, TypeScript, React, .NET Framework, and .NET Core. “Today, I am an Architect looking after two teams responsible for serving millions of pageviews and thousands of registrations around the world,” he said. His teams use Hypothesis-Driven Development to experiment and make data-driven decisions across multiple releases per day.
His passion for art led to WallpaperHub, a website that brings high-quality desktop wallpaper images together in one place.
It started when he couldn’t find wallpapers he liked, so he began making them himself. But as the Windows Insider Program was introduced, Michael began sharing his wallpapers. “I just put the wallpapers on OneDrive and tweeted out links. But this became quite time-consuming, and I never really got a sense of which wallpapers were popular,” he said.
He decided to start building his own website with React server-side rendering on a .NET Core server in his free time, and so, WallpaperHub was born.
Today, it has a range of wallpapers, which include the Bing image of the day, his own designs, official wallpapers from Microsoft, and fan-made designs from creators who reach out to him on Twitter.
Michael is always improving the site’s design and his selection of wallpapers. “I’ve added features and categories over time, most recently adding ‘foldable’ wallpapers in preparation for the launch of the Surface Duo,” he said. “Next, I am planning to introduce a new, much improved WallpaperHub API.”
The WallpaperHub’s users have kept him passionate about the project over the years. “It receives hundreds of thousands of pageviews and downloads a month, and it’s so rewarding to see the love from the community for the site and wallpapers,” he said.
But Michael’s community reaches even further with the Windows Insider Program.
Building community
Michael has been building his tech community through blogging since he was still a college student. “I wanted to write about the things I knew and used, and that happened to be Microsoft technology,” he said.
He soon expanded to covering news and writing for other Microsoft-focused publications and found that he had a unique opportunity to share user feedback about features with their teams at Microsoft. “That lead me to do more engaging things with the community, whether it be the fun Build Bingo game to play during Microsoft events, organizing Windows Insider meetups, or creating CSS projects for developers to use.”
Build Bingo, a game of bingo he creates for each year’s Microsoft Build conference, is a fun way for developers to participate in events from around the world. “Things like Build Bingo are a pretty throwaway thing, as the game is only relevant for a few hours,” he said. “But people enjoy playing it whilst watching Microsoft’s events.”
Michael also joined the Windows Insider team in-person at Microsoft Build in 2019 to talk about being an MVP, WallpaperHub, and the meetups he organizes. “It was brilliant to be able to see the work of Microsoft and its community of passionate developers and fans and to share in excitement of the announcements,” he said. “Being asked to talk at one of the sessions was extremely rewarding.”
But for him, getting to know other Windows Insiders like Caleb Ndaka, Gomolemo Mohapi, and Vuyo Mhlotshane was the highlight. “The most meaningful part was hearing how the other Insiders who were invited to talk have made such incredible contributions within their community, from helping out their fellow students to educating and empowering people to understand and use technology,” he said.
These connections and his love of learning and technology are just some of the reasons that Michael is one of our Windows Insider MVPs.
Leading through passion
Michael became a Windows Insider to test out the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Builds, so he could see which features were coming next.
Today, he’s in the Dev Channel, “for the new UI goodness,” he said, and in recent years, he’s enjoyed previewing clipboard improvements, the emoji panel, WSL, and the new Start menu design.
What can’t he wait to see next in preview builds? More design improvements of course. “For me design is something important to the overall experience of a system, and Windows is such an old system there are plenty of places where old designs and icons still appear that make the whole system less cohesive,” he said. “However, in recent builds we’ve seen improved designs for the Start menu and keyboard. These changes are minor, but they speak of an attention to detail that Windows has lacked in the past.”
But not long after joining, it became clear to Michael that early access to the latest features and designs wasn’t the only reason to join the program.
“Over time it became more obvious the ways in which being an Insider could really impact the work Microsoft was doing with feedback,” he said. “There aren’t many chances for people to directly influence a product as widely used as Windows, but obviously with WIP, that is a possibility.”
According to Michael, the opportunity to connect with Windows Insiders around the world is another important reason to join the program. “I have met so many great people through meetups I’ve organized, events I’ve attended, and just virtually through Twitter, that without WIP, I just wouldn’t have had the opportunity,” he said. “There are people from all walks of life and being able to talk with them because of our shared interest in Windows, and usually Microsoft, offers a great opportunity for new friendships.”
Michael became a Windows Insider MVP because of the outstanding community he’s built from all his different projects and as a highly involved Insider. Now, he tracks all the ways he gives back to the program each year to keep renewing his status. ““Windows Insider MVPs stand out because of their passion for what they do within the community,” he said.
For those interested in building their own communities, Michael says authenticity is key. “I think the crucial part is about being authentic with those within the community, whatever that community might be,” he said. “You need to understand what the community responds well to and what you enjoy doing. You can then bring those two things together to enhance the community.”
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