News & Stories

Continuous white line art of diverse faces on a black background highlights "Aretmide ♥ Microsoft" and "illumination & interaction" below.

UX/UI - Hardware

Illuminating the Next Era of Computing

A futuristic exploration between Microsoft and Artemide based on the interplay of light and technology.

Graphic with bold, stylized text reading "Content Designers" and a subtitle "The unsung heroes of design." Additional smaller text notes the role of former English majors in technology and design. Features abstract shapes and a checkmark symbol.

Design Thinking - Content Design

Content Designers: the unsung heroes of design

Why former English majors will become the epicenter of technology & design.

Design Thinking

Unsolicited advice to my younger designer self

What I wish I’d known starting out as a designer in big tech.

A digital artwork showcases a 3D grid of cubes with a reflective surface, enhanced by AI-driven design. The cubes form a tunnel-like perspective, with gradients of yellow and purple crafting an abstract, futuristic ambiance. Small droplets or bubbles float throughout the scene.

AI - Design Thinking

Design Systems for the AI Era

How we’re building the tools to build the future

Gallery - Visual Design

Behind the design: Fluent illustration UX video

Check out our latest UX video breakdown

A surreal, abstract digital artwork featuring disembodied hands interacting with geometric shapes. The composition includes cylindrical and circular forms with a reflective, metallic texture on a vibrant pink and yellow gradient background.

Op-Ed - Inclusive Design

Designing against the deaf tax

How we can flip the script on tokenism

Visual Design - UX/UI - Fluent Design

Embracing vibrant universality in Fluent illustrations

Rethinking our illustrations to create better experiences for our customers.

A vibrant pattern of hexagonal tiles in a gradient of red, pink, blue, and green hues, creating an abstract and dynamic visual effect.

AI

The designer’s guide to jumping in the deep end of AI

How I accidentally became a startup guy and saved my mom’s skin

A tablet and smartphone display a design interface on screens, with a colorful and creative backdrop. The tablet's screen shows design categories and a search bar, while the smartphone displays assorted design templates. Objects around the devices enhance the artistic theme.

AI - Visual Design - UX/UI

AI-Powered Creativity with Microsoft Designer

How we made a visual design tool for everybody

Visual Design - Brand

The vibrant evolution: Microsoft’s colorful transformation

In the ever-evolving landscape of design, color isn’t just visual—it’s emotional.

A stylized collage featuring a woman with long brown hair wearing a patterned sweater on the right, and a person working at a desk on the left. Bold text reads "Simone Williams," with a large yellow circle underneath. Various graphic elements are scattered throughout.

Op-Ed - Content Design - Profiles

Why designers shouldn’t always be designers

A Content Designer from Microsoft Clipchamp tells her story

Visual Design - UX/UI

Redefining productivity with Outlook

Our design journey to redefine Outlook for Windows through craftsmanship, intelligence, and personalization.

A whimsical scene featuring large, bubble-text letters spelling out "Jessica Kashita" amidst stylized plants and mountains. The scene includes a wooden desk with a vintage computer, potted plants, a watering can, and a photo of a woman taped to the desk.

Op-Ed - Sustainability

Design as an earthling

Connecting the outer worlds of our environment to the inner world of self

A still life composition featuring various 3D-rendered letters and shapes in white and red. The scene is illuminated dramatically with light and shadow, and a translucent fabric drapes softly over part of the display. The setting is minimalist and artistic.

UX/UI - Content Design

The hidden power of typography

The science behind how design choices influence perception and behavior

Profiles

How a Senior Game Designer turned gaming into a career

Kristine Golus, the woman behind Xbox’s home editorial experience

Inclusive Design - Design Thinking - UX/UI

Inclusive Design’s next wave breaks for mental health

Our toolkit for designing with cognitive diversity extends into wellbeing

Illustration of a cityscape blending urban and countryside elements. Depicts tall buildings, houses, trees, a wheelchair user, people working at desks, a bus, farm fields, and various technological icons on a dark background with a white line drawing style.

Inclusive Design - Design Thinking - Hardware

When designing for the disabled, fit is the finish

A one-size-fits-one toolkit for designing inclusive hardware

Inclusive Design - Visual Design - UX/UI

Microsoft Design Week 2024

A comprehensive guide of what’s what for Microsoft Design Week

Visual Design - Content Design

Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

Journey through the design process for our new default font

A grid of 14 yellow emojis with various expressions, including laughing, crying with joy, winking, and blowing a kiss. The background is a vibrant pink and purple gradient. One emoji has a halo, and another appears to be sending a virtual hug.

UX/UI - Fluent Design

Bringing new emoji to Windows 11

A look at how we designed a new dimension of expression

Visual Design

A canvas of community narratives

Xbox celebrates a year of visual storytelling by launching new dynamic backgrounds

A colorful illustration of a bearded man with a smiling face, wearing a red shirt with patterns. The background is an abstract mix of vibrant colors. The text "Leitin Pedro" and "3D Designer" is written in a playful, white font on either side of the man.

Profiles

A 3D visual designer talks designing to scale

The demanding field requires constant learning and adaptation to new technologies and tools

Hardware

An ethos for innovation

The unique ethos that sparked Surface’s pioneering 2-in-1 design, from the seminal Surface Pro to the new Surface Laptop Studio 2

A colorful, abstract image of a human silhouette standing in the center surrounded by bright, radiating beams of light in shades of purple, blue, and white. The silhouette appears to be a blend of blue, yellow, and orange hues, giving a vibrant, ethereal feel.

Op-Ed

Living Color: Designing through synesthesia

How a Design Director’s experience with synesthesia influenced her learning in design

AI - Content Design - Profiles

In the age of AI, will content designers become extinct?

Senior Content Designer Jenny Williams talks about her role, and working with AI

A stylized illustration of a bearded individual with large black-framed glasses, a cigarette in their mouth, and a playful expression. The background is blue with the name "Jason Custer" written in white, bubbly letters on either side of the figure.

Iconography - Profiles

What does an icon designer do?

Meet Jason Custer, an icon designer on the Fluent Design System team

Scenic coastal landscape with rocky cliffs beside a turquoise ocean under a partly cloudy sky. Large green text in the center reads "Aptos™." Labels "Aptos Narrow" and "Aptos Variable" appear at the top left and top right, respectively.

UX/UI - Content Design - Brand

A change of typeface: Microsoft’s new default font has arrived

Introducing Aptos, our modern successor to Calibri

AI - Design Thinking - UX/UI

Microsoft Power Pages and the age of low-code no-code

The design thinking behind a new website building experience

AI - Design Thinking - UX/UI

Behind the design: Meet Copilot

When the system is the product; on crafting the next generation of user experiences

Visual Design - Design Thinking - UX/UI

Microsoft Loop and the future of collaborative experiences

The design thinking and user research that turned into Microsoft Loop

Op-Ed

Humanness in remote design culture

What I learned from a year of fostering a virtual design community

Visual Design - Brand

Visualizing the Cloud

How we crafted a bespoke visual identity for our cloud platforms and services

A collage of four surreal images: a circular shadowed room with a bench and dog; an arched hallway overlooking a vibrant floral field; close-up of delicate pink flowers; a colorful, fantasy forest with bright red and blue foliage.

Visual Design

More than pretty pictures: All-new Teams backgrounds

How psychology, semiotics, and dazzling imagery are converging to improve the future of hybrid work

Illustration of a bright white light exploding from the center surrounded by radiating beams in yellow, orange, and white. The background features abstract, dark arches and swirling patterns in navy blue and purple hues.

Op-Ed - Inclusive Design

Black Bauhaus

How Black and African art and culture shaped design as we know it

A painting of a person looking contemplatively out of a window. The individual is wearing a light yellow hoodie and a white headscarf. The background is a solid light blue color, enhancing the serene and reflective atmosphere of the scene.

Op-Ed - Inclusive Design

Power of the Pluriverse

How principles of radical interdependence can be applied to UX design

A stylized digital illustration of a smiling person with long, twisted hair, wearing hoop earrings. The background features bright patterns in yellow, blue, pink, and black. A label on the right reads, "Samantha Kitetu, UX Designer.

Profiles

Meet Studio +254: UX designer, Samantha Kitetu

Samantha Kitetu, a UX designer, sits down to talk with Ohemaa Dixon to discuss her journey in UX design so far in Nairobi, Kenya

A simple, cartoon illustration of a mammoth with tusks and green-tinted fur standing on a patch of rocks, drawn in a sketched style on a white background.

Sustainability - Design Thinking

Leave no trace Part II

How sustainable design practices can digitally reduce our carbon footprint.

A green keyboard cover featuring a full QWERTY layout with function keys and a touchpad at the bottom. The keys include a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols, along with control keys such as shift, caps lock, tab, and function keys labeled from F1 to F12.

Hardware

Behind-the-design: Surface pro signature keyboard

Collaborating with Alcantara to integrate renewable materials into Surface Pro Signature Keyboard

Visual Design - UX/UI

Designing the new era of Teams

A multi-year design journey to rearchitect Teams from the ground up

Illustration of a person named Karthi Subbaraman with short, curly hair, smiling, wearing glasses and a purple shirt. Text beside them reads "say hi to! Karthi Subbaraman" with pronouns "she/her." Background features tech gadgets, a book, and colorful geometric shapes.

Profiles

Meet Studio +91: Karthi Subbaraman

Karthi Subbaraman, a Design Group Experience Manager, sits down to talk with her colleague Rachel Romano to reflect on her journey in product making for Women’s History Month

Digital drawing of Amina Hassan Said Islam wearing glasses and a hijab against a vibrant, abstract background of swirling colors. A text label beside her reads, "Amina Hassan Said Islam, UX Researcher.

Profiles

Meet Studio +254: UX Researcher, Amina Hassan Said Islam

Amina Hassan Said Islam, a UX researcher, sits down to talk with her colleague Harrison Maina to discuss her journey in UX research so far in Nairobi, Kenya

A colorful illustration of a smiling woman with short black hair, labeled as a "Principal Design Researcher." The background features abstract patterns and silhouettes of people in vibrant shades of pink, blue, and purple.

Inclusive Design - Profiles

Adoley Azu on her journey of inclusion

How a Principal Design Researcher is bridging the digital divide

Profiles

Meet Studio +254: Viola Bazanye

Viola Bazanye, a UX engineer, sits down to talk with her colleague Timothy Achumba to discuss her journey in design so far in Nairobi, Kenya

A vibrant, digital illustration of a woman with short, dark hair, smiling against an orange background. "Senior UX Engineer" is written next to her. Various geometric shapes and abstract elements surround her, adding a dynamic feel to the image.

Profiles

Innovating in pursuit of the ultimate customer experience

Senior UX engineer Kelly Gorr shares her journey of discovery and innovation

The image features the text "Design Week '22" in stylized, colorful letters on a light purple background. The word "Design" is in purple with a green dot inside the "D," while "Week '22" is in pink and orange hues.

Visual Design - Design Thinking

Microsoft Design Week 2022: A Comprehensive Guide of What’s What for Microsoft Design Week

For the first time ever, we’re inviting external audiences to preview a batch of curated talks from our largest internal design event. Here’s your guide on what’s what, the full playlist, and more.

UX/UI

Designing a new Outlook experience

Our design journey to modernize Outlook

Close-up photo of a man's face with a colorful, rainbow gradient background and geometric font. Text on the image reads, "Maurice Woods, He/Him, A Principal Designer @Microsoft.

Profiles

Maurice Woods: Changing the world through design

How a Microsoft designer uses activism to bring the Black experience to the forefront at work and beyond.

A pile of brightly colored plastic rock climbing holds, mainly in purple, orange, and white, scattered on a gray surface. The holds vary in shape and size, designed for different types of climbing grips.

Inclusive Design - Hardware

The making of Microsoft Adaptive Accessories

How we’re designing assisted devices to give everyone access to the future.

A cluttered desk with photos of various people, a cup of coffee, a green plant in a silvery pot, differently colored stationery, grid paper, and a sphere on a purple stand. The scene is brightly lit with colorful, vibrant elements scattered around.

Visual Design - Iconography

Iconography for Microsoft Viva

Designing icons for experiences that empower employees

Sustainability - Design Thinking

Leave no trace

How product designers can break from the status quo and help our planet

A vibrant, abstract artwork featuring an explosion of colorful, elongated rectangles converging at a central point. The colors include various shades of the rainbow, with some rectangles containing small symbols like a Greek letter alpha and other icons.

Inclusive Design - Brand

Pride should be open source

Bringing LGBTQIA+ history to life in the metaverse and through open source design.

A cute, fluffy green monster with large, round eyes and thick blue eyebrows on a purple background. The monster's fur appears soft and fuzzy, giving it a friendly and whimsical appearance.

Visual Design - UX/UI

The Feelings Monster, building a character with all the feels

On designing for mental health and the power of emotionally safe spaces

A grid of various 3D emojis on a light-colored background, featuring hand gestures, people dancing, hearts, balloons, musical notes, magnifying glasses, sun and moon icons, and other symbols. A large 3D yellow-haired dancer with a red dress stands out in the center.

Visual Design - UX/UI - Fluent Design

Designing in the open(source)

Why we’re excited to freely share our emoji for you to remix

A colorful and whimsical illustration of six abstract, humanoid characters with various shapes and outfits. One character is glitching on the left, and another has a floating head. The vibrant background is light blue.

Inclusive Design - UX Research

When equal isn’t equitable

Insights and best practices from Microsoft’s Inclusive Research team

A man wearing a virtual reality headset stands on a barren, polluted landscape with smoke-emitting factories in the background. Through the VR headset, he sees a vibrant, futuristic cityscape with clear skies, advanced buildings, and a sailboat on calm water.

Sustainability - Design Thinking

Digital = Physical

Green Design Principles that every designer can use to combat climate change

A child with curly hair and wearing brown clothes stands, raising their hand towards the sky. They face an ethereal cityscape filled with tall, pointed towers under a large white moon. The background is a soft blue. A small orange ball lies near the child's feet.

Op-Ed

Raised by an afrofuturist

The first in a series of personal essays that brings to life the rich perspectives of the design community at Microsoft

A 3D abstract sculpture composed of layers and folds, resembling flowing fabric. The structure is in soft shades of purple and set against a dark gray background, giving it a smooth and elegant appearance.

Visual Design - Brand

Silver linings and new hues

Collaborating with Pantone to bring more color to work and life

AI - Design Thinking - UX/UI

Slowing down to speed up

A cross-discipline collaboration to ethically leverage AI and improve in-person shopping experiences

Abstract digital art featuring three floating, semi-transparent geometric shapes: a pinkish-red rectangle, a blue triangle, and a white square. They are stacked vertically against a light, speckled background with a flat corner on the top right.

Design Thinking - Fluent Design

Four principles for the future of design

How the Fluent Design System helps us evolve and grow better together

UX/UI - Fluent Design

An emoji for your thoughts

Why we refreshed our 1800+ emoji to support the new landscape of work

UX/UI

Windows 11: Designing the next generation

Leveraging customer insights and empathy to create for a billion people.

Two hands gently hold a glowing blue cube against a dark background. The light from the cube illuminates the hands and creates a soft blue glow around them. The image has a mysterious and futuristic feel.

Design Thinking - UX/UI

Touching holograms

How the Microsoft Mixed Reality Studios explored more immersive interactions

Grid of 24 colorful squares, each featuring different typographic elements, including letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and various fonts. The colors range from soft pastels to vibrant hues, showcasing diverse design styles and text textures.

UX/UI - Brand

Beyond Calibri: Finding Microsoft’s next default font

We’ve commissioned five new custom fonts–which should become our next default?

"A serene background with soft pastel colors and abstract shapes. The word 'Give' is prominently displayed in white text with a heart symbol above the 'i'. Below, a search bar contains the text 'The search that gives back' and a magnifying glass icon.

UX/UI - Brand

Give with Microsoft Bing

How your web searches empower everyday giving

A group of Microsoft Surface devices in various shades of blue are displayed on a white background. The set includes a laptop, a tablet, a Bluetooth mouse, and two tablets with patterned covers featuring a floral design. The laptop screen shows a blue abstract pattern.

Hardware - Brand

Surface a la Art Nouveau

Collaborating with legendary textile brand, Liberty, to give the iconic Windows Bloom an Art Nouveau twist

A minimalist embossed design on a light-colored surface with the text "ROOM TO THINK." Two concentric circles overlap the first "O" in "ROOM," giving it a unique visual effect.

Design Thinking

That’s a great idea: How to help introverts be heard in meetings

What introverts can teach us about better meeting design

Design Thinking - UX/UI

Reinventing online shopping on Microsoft Edge

Helping shoppers save time and money with an intelligent browser

Hardware

Behind the design: Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S

Why these designers had to be in the room where it happens

A modern, digitally rendered image featuring a compass drawing geometric shapes on an open, textured black book. Various neon blue and green geometric objects and tools surround the book, creating a futuristic, mathematical aesthetic.

Inclusive Design - Design Thinking

Responsible innovation: The next wave of design thinking

Building your moral imagination to create a more ethical future

Illustration of two overlapping human profiles facing opposite directions, filled with interconnected gears and neural connections, symbolizing complex thought processes and mental connectivity. The image uses vibrant purple, blue, and pink colors.

UX Research

Supercharge your agile UX research with informal cognitive walkthroughs

Part two: The external user review

Illustration of four people in a vibrant online chat environment, each in separate video call windows. Speech bubbles, hearts, emojis, and chat icons float around them. One person wears headphones, and another has their hand raised. Background is bright blue.

Op-Ed

OMG! I’m WFH — Now What?!

A designer’s guide to finding flow from home

A laptop displaying a document is surrounded by six floating screens showing various apps: email, calendar, spreadsheets, slides, chat, and social media. The setting is a modern workspace with plants in the background.

Design Thinking - UX/UI

The next chapter of collaborative experiences

How we’re pushing collaborative technologies beyond the status quo

Six black posters with motivational quotes in different font styles and colors are arranged in two rows on a grass background. Quotes: "Design or Be Designed," "Lead from Within," "Sorry Not Sorry," "Lead by Design," and "Alignment over Hustle.

Inclusive Design

Within Retreat learnings: The importance of diversity and mindfulness in leadership

Five ways emerging women leaders can lift each other up

A pair of white over-ear headphones is centered on a white background, surrounded by an assortment of disassembled headphone parts, including ear cushions, wires, and circular components, all meticulously laid out in a symmetrical pattern.

Hardware

Behind the design: Surface headphones

A person with short light blue hair stands against a gradient purple and blue background, looking at their smartphone, which emits a glow.

Visual Design - UX/UI

Designing dark mode

How we’re crafting Dark Mode experiences across Microsoft 365 that adapt to your daily flow

Floating screens displaying a software interface against a white background. The screens show various menu options, settings, and user forms, primarily in blue and white colors, suggesting an interface for managing and configuring system settings.

Design Thinking - UX/UI

Creation at cloud scale

How we streamlined resource creation in Microsoft Azure to improve usability, consistency, and accessibility

Two silhouetted individuals high-five in front of a colorful background featuring "WE ARE HERE" in large text. The backdrop is associated with the Grace Hopper Celebration, organized by AnitaB.org. Vibrant wave patterns are seen at the bottom of the image.

Inclusive Design

Two women and one man walk into the Grace Hopper celebration…

Meaningful insights from three very different GHC attendees

UX/UI - Iconography

Redesigning the Office app icons to embrace a new world of work

Design is becoming the heart and soul of Office. Learn how we evolved our visual identity to reflect the simple, powerful, and intelligent experiences of Office 365.

Abstract illustration depicting a contrast between a light and dark theme. The left side features light, simplified software icons, while the right side displays a darker, more complex data visualization with graphs, cubes, and interconnected networks.

UX/UI

A cloud for everyone

Tailoring complex experiences for every user level

A speaker stands on a stage presenting during a conference. A large screen displays an image of an airplane in flight. The audience, seated in rows, attentively listens and watches. The room is dimly lit, with overhead lights and spotlights illuminating the stage.

Design Thinking - Content Design

3 Ideas for improving content strategy

Whether you’re a novice or a vet, there’s always more to learn about content strategy

Three small abstract pyramids are displayed, each with distinct and artistic paint patterns. The foreground pyramid features a black and white striped design, while the background pyramids have a mix of marbled and striped colors, including purple accents.

UX Research

Science in the system: Turning squares into circles

Blur Effects, Part 2: Anti-aliasing

Two side-by-side computer screens display a dashboard interface. The left screen shows a light-themed interface with graphs and charts, while the right screen shows the same interface in a dark theme. Both are set on a desk with office items.

Design Thinking - UX/UI

Designing for scale and complexity

How we implemented the Fluent Design System across Microsoft Azure to improve usability, consistency, and accessibility for a highly complex and evolving cloud