ux design

For many Windows users, the system tray is a touchstone of familiarity, consistency, and critical information delivery—a seemingly minor aspect of the interface that carries an outsized weight in daily workflows. When Microsoft began testing a radically simplified system tray for Windows 11 with...

Minimalism has become a trendy aspiration for digital workspaces, and Microsoft’s evolving design language for Windows 11 leans into this direction, frequently prioritizing aesthetics over information density. But while many users and interface designers sing the praises of stripped-back...

The evolution of the Start menu in Windows has long been a point of both nostalgia and controversy for users spanning multiple generations of the operating system. Microsoft’s ongoing development strategy for Windows 11 appears keenly aware of this legacy—making the Start menu not just a hub for...

Where growth happens, trust must follow. In the enterprise technology landscape, this idea has become more than advice; it’s a survival strategy. As organizations race to the cloud and digital transformation reshapes every industry, the relationship between security and user experience now forms...

The Lenovo Legion Go S, a recent entrant in the handheld gaming market, has ignited discussions about the suitability of Windows 11 for portable gaming devices. While the hardware boasts impressive specifications, the operating system's performance on such devices has come under scrutiny...

Microsoft’s continuous drive to refine Windows 11 into an ever-more creative and productivity-focused environment is showing new momentum with the upcoming integration of advanced screen tools—most notably, a native Color Picker and AI-powered text extraction—directly into the Snipping Tool...

The unveiling of a reimagined Start menu in Windows 11 signals another bold step in Microsoft’s quest to redefine user interaction with its iconic operating system. The Start menu, an ever-present symbol of the Windows experience since its debut in Windows 95, has undergone periodic...

Windows Copilot’s journey has been one marked by ambition, controversy, and—at least in its latest incarnation—a much-needed dose of humility. For an AI assistant built into the very bones of Windows 11 and now literalized as a dedicated keyboard key, Copilot has often seemed to waver between...

For the longest time, Microsoft treated the Windows Taskbar as if it were the dashboard of a spaceship—clunky, information-rich, and somehow both essential and confusing. Then Windows 11 landed with its super-sleek, minimalist Taskbar, and users around the globe collectively scratched their...

File Explorer in Windows 11 is finally learning how to dress for the occasion. For years, Microsoft’s premium file navigation tool has been the jeans-and-t-shirt kind of utility—functional, familiar, but without much flair. Now, with its latest refresh, File Explorer is rifling through its...

The world of Windows is full of surprises—none more so than the unexpected appearance of the infamous Blue Screen of Death. While historically a harbinger of system crashes and lost work, Microsoft's latest redesign breathes new (and yes, even green) life into this once-dreaded error screen...

In November, we shared our vision for dual-screen devices and how this new device category will help people get more done on smaller and more mobile form factors. Today, we are excited to give you an update on how you can get started and optimize for dual-screen devices by: Exploring preview...

The Composition APIs come with a robust animation engine that provides quick and fluid motion running in a separate process from your Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app. This ensures a consistent 60 frames per second when running your app on an IoT device as well as on a screaming gaming...

Link Removed What is your favorite color? Most of us have been asked this question for as long as we can remember. And for most of us, this decision probably marked our first and foundational experience with having an artistic preference. Color matters. Previous posts have touched briefly on...

In the past several posts, we have covered user interface (UI) design concepts such as typography, visual cues, and design thinking. In today’s blog, however, we will look at a topic that has much less to do with solving UI design problems and much more to do with solving user experience (UX)...

Link Removed Iconography is a visual language used to represent features, functionality, or content. Icons are meant to be simple, visual elements that are recognized and understood immediately. In a previous post, we explored communication through visual cues. We also dove a little deeper...

Link Removed If design can be said to have one big secret, something that makes designers what they are and distinguishes them from coders, it is sketching. At the same time, it is an easy skill to learn—though not to master—and you have probably been doing it all of your life without realizing...

Recently, we introduced Microsoft Edge’s new accessibility architecture, which inherently supports modern web standards, and provides a foundation to make the web platform more accessible than ever. To build a comprehensive ecosystem across all products and users of every ability, assistive...

Want to optimize how a list of images loads and scrolls in your Windows Phone application? Jobi Joy, UX Architect with Link Removed and key contributor to the IRC chat app in the MIX11 Day 2 keynote, returns to discuss with John how he handles image scenarios such as this, as well as how he ekes...

Recently, UX legend Bill Buxton was in town and stopped by to share what he's been up to. In this video, he discusses how integrated devices with things that "just work together," UX, and touch might all be in our lives to a much larger degree in the near future. This is a short conversation...