Microsoft 365 Mobile
In this article by Jon Friedman, we shared our collective effort to re-think Microsoft’s approach to designing and building mobile experiences. As part of this release, I was tasked with leading the storytelling around the effort, crafting artwork that featured the new app designs, as well as this UX film that stitched it all together into one cohesive story.
One of the sections of the film that we paid close attention to was this desk scene at the beginning, which was suggestive of a designer’s space and include various hints and easter eggs related to our design language and the newly designed components and iconography that customers would soon experience in the apps.
Experiments for defining the aesthetics of the dark mode scene of the film.
We were inspired by the notion that people are typically inseparable from their phones and bring them everywhere as they are out and about. Using this inspiration to re-interpret the UI elements as physical objects, we took cues from real-world lighting, materials and textures to effectively present the designs in a casual, warm and more human way.
Seen above are many re-imagined interpretations of our new icons as pots and other decorative objects. Further down are some other early concepts of how to potentially present the apps within an environment. After exploring various fabric solutions, we went with a more traditional panel that allowed them to be seen in a clearer light.
Explorations of potential looks for showcasing the app designs.
By extruding different parts of our app icons, we were able to create small architectural sculptures. We used these concepts to build some of the structures seen throughout the film.
And, there is Clippy!
Thank you!
Thanks to Benedikt Lehnert, Jon Friedman, Taili Feng, Rachel Romano and many others at Microsoft for making this project a reality.
Thank you to my creative partners in crafting this film Matthias Winckelmann. Helge Kiehl, Conrad Ostwald and the Foam Studio team. And, as always, thanks to Zelig Sound for their superb contribution.