UX/UI Archives - Microsoft Design

A soft, gradient background with a split image: left shows a large yellow sun with birds, right shows three abstract glowing figures around a flame.

Design Thinking

Gathering around the fire: Durable human experience patterns in the AI era

Oped UX/UI

A geometric diagram with five black dots connected by yellow triangles, featuring four images: a cyclist silhouette, a purple square, a colorful blurry square, and an oval shape at the top left.

UX Research

The Great UXR Transformation 

A working guide to modernizing your UX research practice for the AI era

Oped UX/UI

A green rectangular table with papers, pencils, and books, surrounded by colorful office chairs—red, orange, green, purple, and blue—on a bright blue floor. One chair at the front is shown as a white silhouette.

UX Research

The missing seat at the frontier team table

How user research and data science can together shape LLM evaluations

Evals UX/UI

A digital illustration shows transparent overlapping panels with glowing edges, cursor arrows pointing at them, and faint code snippets, representing user interface design or software development concepts.

Product

Design isn’t dying. It’s shifting left.

When the model is the new medium, shaping how it behaves in humanistic ways is design

Design Thinking UX/UI

Abstract 3D icons for user profiles, messaging, and calendars are arranged in a row with magnifying glass symbols. Around them are colorful UI elements, avatars, chat bubbles, links, and schedule grids on a white surface.

Product

From incubation to impact: Microsoft 365 Companion apps

How scrappy prototypes became polished apps—shipped on the taskbar, grounded in Fluent, and refined by research.

Design Thinking M365 UX/UI Windows

Product

The new Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile experience

How we redesigned the Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile app to create a workspace built around conversation, dialogue, and discovery.

AI M365 Copilot UX/UI

Abstract 3D illustration with curved, colorful ribbons. Floating icons include “Create agent” with a plus sign, a cloud symbol, and “Catch up” with a wave, all set against a light background.

Product

The new UI for enterprise AI

Evolving business apps and agents through form and function

Iconography M365 UX/UI

A person with curly hair is sitting on a couch, using a laptop. The screen displays a presentation slide with the title "Location" and some charts or graphics. The person's hands are on the keyboard and trackpad.

Product

The age of the design hacker

Six practical mindsets for building secure and resilient UX

UX/UI

A Sign-in screen for Microsoft appears with fields for email or phone number, overlaid on a colorful, abstract background filled with floating shapes and playful icons like a keyboard, heart, and smiley face emoji.

Product

Reimagining our front door

Using positive psychology to craft delightful sign-in & sign-up experiences

UX/UI Windows

Abstract image featuring smooth, rounded shapes in shades of red, pink, and orange with a glossy, almost glasslike appearance against a gradient background. The forms blend and overlap, creating a soft, fluid composition.

UX Research

Making UX research insights and frameworks beautiful

Discover how one team transformed a complex UX research framework into a visually engaging artifact to make insights stick and spark alignment across teams

Design Thinking UX/UI

Product

A mobile-first approach for Microsoft 365 Copilot  

How Microsoft is reimagining productivity from a mobile-first lens

Design Thinking UX/UI

A green cutting mat with 3D letters, numbers, and symbols in white; surrounding papers show typeface samples and color swatches. The word "Calibri" is printed on the mat.

Craft

From paper to pixels: The evolution of ClearType and onscreen reading

How we made digital text like printed words on paper

Design Thinking UX/UI

A Windows 11 desktop with the Start menu open, showing pinned and recommended apps, search bar at the top, and taskbar shortcuts at the bottom over a blue abstract background.

Product

Start, fresh — Redesigning the Windows Start menu for you

This is the first post in our new Beyond the Surface series, a behind-the-scenes look at how craft comes to life in Windows products and features.

UX/UI Windows

A bold and colorful graphic with geometric shapes in blue, orange, and beige features the text "Evolving Human-Centered Design.

Craft

Evolving human-centered design: Part 1

Our approach to Human-Centered Design, and the gaps therein

Design Thinking UX/UI

An abstract digital artwork featuring overlapping geometric shapes and gradients in blue, purple, and pink hues. Circles, rectangles, and lines blend with small squares, creating an energetic and colorful composition.

Product

UX design for agents

Microsoft principles and guidelines for building agentic experiences

UX Research UX/UI

Product

A glimpse into the history of Windows design

UX/UI Windows

A translucent, abstract shield-like structure with ridged textures on a soft pink background. The shield casts gentle shadows, creating a wavy effect on the surface. A small triangular piece is separated from the main shape.

Product

Secure by design: A UX toolkit

Human error causes a majority of security breaches. Our UX toolkit can help you build secure and empowered user experiences.

Design Thinking UX/UI

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

Product

Illuminating the next era of computing

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

Hardware UX/UI

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.

Product

Design systems for the AI era

How we’re building the tools to build the future

AI Design Thinking UX/UI

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.

Product

AI-Powered creativity with Microsoft Designer

How we made a visual design tool for everybody

AI Microsoft Designer UX/UI Visual Design

Product

Redefining productivity with Outlook

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

Outlook UX/UI

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.

Craft

The hidden power of typography

The science behind how design choices influence perception and behavior

Content Design Typography UX/UI

Craft

Inclusive design’s next wave breaks for mental health

Our toolkit for designing with cognitive diversity extends into wellbeing

Design Thinking Inclusive Design UX/UI

Craft

Microsoft Design Week 2024

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

Inclusive Design UX/UI Visual Design

Collage showcasing various Aptos font styles and their applications, including Display, Condensed Light, and Black. The images highlight different alphabets, symbols, and context uses, such as a portrait, map, and typographic grid.

Craft

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

Introducing Aptos, our modern successor to Calibri

Brand Typography UX/UI

Product

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

The design thinking behind a new website building experience

AI Design Thinking Microsoft Power Pages UX/UI

Product

Behind the design: Meet Copilot

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

AI Copilot Design Thinking UX/UI

Product

Designing the new era of Teams

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

Teams UX/UI

Product

Designing a new Outlook experience

Our design journey to modernize Outlook

Outlook UX/UI

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.

Craft

The Feelings Monster, building a character with all the feels

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

UX/UI

Craft

Slowing down to speed up

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

AI Design Thinking UX/UI

Product

Windows 11: Designing the next generation

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

UX/UI Windows

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.

Product

Touching holograms

How the Microsoft Mixed Reality Studios explored more immersive interactions

Design Thinking UX/UI

Product

Reinventing online shopping on Microsoft Edge

Helping shoppers save time and money with an intelligent browser

Design Thinking Microsoft Edge UX/UI

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.

Craft

The next chapter of collaborative experiences

How we’re pushing collaborative technologies beyond the status quo

Design Thinking UX/UI

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

Product

Designing dark mode

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

UX/UI

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.

Craft

Creation at cloud scale

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

Design Thinking UX/UI

Product

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.

Iconography M365 Office UX/UI

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.

Product

A cloud for everyone

Tailoring complex experiences for every user level

Azure UX/UI

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.

Craft

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

Design Thinking UX/UI

A collage of floating computer screens displaying various Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams. The interfaces show different documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and communication threads, set against a light grey background.

Craft

Designing for power and simplicity

How we evolved the Microsoft Office 365 user experience to support a more simple, powerful, and intelligent suite of connected products

Design Thinking UX/UI

A screenshot of an email application on a Windows operating system. The screen displays the inbox, sent items, drafts, and multiple project folders on the left. The main window shows an open email with the subject "Catching up" and an image of a person with long hair.

Product

Digital design is never done: Evolving Windows 10 mail and calendar

How our team made fan-loved functionality more Fluent

UX/UI Windows