ux design

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider builds are shipping a new, full-screen renewal prompt aimed at lapsed Microsoft 365 subscriptions — an eye-catching SCOOBE (Second‑Chance Out‑of‑Box Experience) screen that insiders and early reports describe as a full‑screen nag to renew rather than a...

Abdi’s “Brilliant Windows 12” concept doesn’t just re‑dress Windows in a shinier skin — it surfaces a coherent, user‑first playbook for how Microsoft could fix the things people actually complain about in Windows 11, and the timing could not be more consequential as Windows 10 support winds down...

Human memory is not a passive archive — it’s a efficiency engine, and a set of new experiments summarized in Psychology Today argues that our brains preferentially encode pairs of people who look like they’re interacting, making these dyads easier to recall later than two people who merely...

Microsoft’s Copilot on Windows 11 is shedding its “chat-first” skin and opening a new, dashboard-style Home tab that behaves less like a conversational window and more like an AI-centric Start menu — surfacing recent files, apps, conversations, and guided help in one place. Background Microsoft...

IFA 2025 made one thing unavoidably clear: artificial intelligence is no longer an experimental sidebar at trade shows — it’s the main stage. From conversational TV companions to penguin-like domesticated robots and a self‑flushing cat toilet that promises to log your pet’s health metrics, AI...

Microsoft quietly expanded the Bing interface this summer by adding keyword suggestions adjacent to a floating Copilot search box, a small-looking tweak with outsized implications for how users discover, refine, and are nudged toward conversational search—an experiment first surfaced by industry...

Microsoft’s operating system has always been a mix of pragmatic engineering, bold experiments, and occasional overreach — and some of its most interesting contributions were simply ahead of their time. A recent roundup of five Windows features — Briefcase, MSN Gaming Zone, Windows CardSpace...

Microsoft’s PowerToys 0.93 delivered a much-needed Settings dashboard overhaul and major Command Palette performance wins, but the suite still lacks a unified Settings search—and community work tracked on GitHub plus Microsoft’s own roadmap notes indicate a settings search bar is targeted for...

Microsoft's latest change to the Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile experience on iOS—which converts the app into a file preview and Copilot chat wrapper that redirects editing tasks to standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps—represents a deliberate shift in how the company structures mobile...

Microsoft’s long‑running dark‑mode problem is beginning to look less like an unfinished promise and more like a deliberate, staged repair: recent Windows Insider and Release Preview builds contain code that darkens a cluster of previously glaring white file‑operation dialogs, and community...

Microsoft’s latest Canary-channel flight sharpens two long-running efforts at once: clearer battery status at a glance, and the slow, methodical migration of legacy Control Panel functionality into the modern Settings app — both arriving in preview builds that continue to reshape how users...

Microsoft’s quiet theming work in recent Insider previews finally moves one of Windows’ most visible UX complaints from “annoying” to “fix-in-progress,” as file‑operation dialogs — the copy/move progress windows, delete confirmations, access‑denied prompts and similar surfaces — are now...

Microsoft has quietly begun to fix one of Windows 11’s most persistent frictions: the sudden, blinding white dialogs that have long broken the illusion of a system-wide Dark Mode. Recent Insider preview builds include dark-themed file-operation dialogs — copy/move progress windows, delete...

Microsoft’s design teams have quietly filed a patent for a foldable mobile device that embeds a Surface Pro–style kickstand into the hinge-backed frame — a mechanical scheme that would let a two‑panel foldable both pop open with one hand and sit stably on a desk like a tiny Surface PC. The...

Microsoft is quietly testing Copilot recommendations inside the Windows 11 Start menu — a small interface change that marks a strategic shift: Microsoft is no longer content to confine Copilot to a sidebar or system tray; it wants the AI assistant surfaced where users begin tasks, and it’s...

The Case for Personality‑Free AI A practical, ethical, and technical argument for keeping our assistants professional — and how to design AI that helps without pretending to be human By WindowsForum.com contributor — August 15, 2025 Summary: As AI moves from isolated tools into always‑on...

Microsoft’s newest public framing of Windows isn’t merely about faster updates or refreshed icons — it’s a clear signal that the desktop is being rewired around generative AI, voice control, and computer vision, and that the humble mouse and keyboard will likely shift from default inputs to one...

Microsoft’s latest experiment in Edge promotion — a stealthy, exit-time prompt that appears to heavy Chrome users and asks them to pin Microsoft Edge to the Windows 11 taskbar — has renewed an old debate about platform behavior, telemetry, and user choice. The feature was uncovered as inert...

Microsoft Teams, the widely adopted collaboration platform within Microsoft 365, regularly evolves to address the complex realities of modern work. Its latest update, the introduction of a new meeting join bar—also referred to as a meeting join banner—marks a notable leap in usability and...

The archetype of the cybercriminal has evolved. Gone are the days when the most dangerous attackers were solitary figures shrouded in dark hoodies, furiously attempting to breach technical defenses. Today’s most insidious threats are casual, even personable—the scammer who reaches you via a...