User Experience

There is nothing more important than relationship. I’ll type that again. There is nothing more important than relationship. This isn’t exclusive to how we relate to each other, but also how we relate to the objects around us. Do the interactions bring us joy? Is the thing with which we interact easy to use? How do I relate to it and how does it relate to me?

In the my time at Microsoft, one of my responsibilities was to create these interactions within aspects of Microsoft’s productivity services that made them the industry standard- the gateway to achieving one’s aspirations. 

This, of course, can look completely different depending on the need, with the end users’ needs as the primary metric. Do they need easier access to an existing feature? Are we launching a new feature based on feedback? Would it benefit them to be aware of a completely new offering? And of course, where are we reaching them with this information and these interactions?

​

With these variables in mind,  building a team to create assets that both bring those interactions to life as well as showcase them. 

 

When launching a new feature, it was necessary to go a little further and work with writers to more fully walk our users through the steps and then utilize animated gifs created from those vector assets to ensure clarity. This would be displayed on a blog with some background and instruction with the gif showcasing that feature. 

When highlighting a completely new offering, it was found a combo was necessary. This would be further elevated by a feature sizzle to build excitement to learn more. 

Building on that new offering,  when the features were part of a product that had a deeper fanbase that was concerned with change. It became important to bring the entire fanbase along for the experience and share the behind the scenes or the making of a feature that highlighted all the parts that went into how a feature works AS WELL AS the why.  

That led us to create a series of "Table Talks"