Kinect SDK
Following the highly successful, record-breaking launch of Xbox Kinect, Microsoft became aware of people "hacking" the Kinect technology to amusing, cool and inspiring results. In an effort to embrace these hackers as well as open the door for academic researchers to explore the boundaries of Kinect's abilities, Microsoft decided to release a Software Developer Kit (SDK).
The key to promoting the release was to ensure that the hackers knew Microsoft was on their level. We identified the arms-up pose of the iconic stick man - that Kinect uses to map a person's body - as the universal symbol for "ready". The use of this imagery hit the mark amongst the developer and hacker community at the official press announcement at MIX11.