Amidst the allure of algorithms and the promise of automation, let‘s never forget the cornerstone that lends gravity to our craft: out focus on the human experience and our ability to evolve.

Microsoft's largest showcase and celebration of creativity, inclusivity, and development.

Design Week 2024

Discover what brand at Microsoft is all about and how to use it to create relevance and desire for our products. 

To build brand love into our products we need a different approach to branding. One that goes beyond the fundamentals and focuses on injecting relevance, emotionality, and insights into everything we do and building peak moments into our products. We should use brand to drive emotion. Learn more in this session.

Sven Seger

GM, Global Creative

Drive Emotion

Featured speakers

Throughout roughly the past 8 years, 3D aesthetics and expressions became a signature Microsoft equity. These worlds reflect unique emotions, romance our products and create strong connections with our audiences. But what makes a 3D uniquely Microsoft? What associations and meanings are we're creating? In this panel we’ll unpack craft, emotion, and language of 3D design. Sharing commonalities and differences that unpack dimension at Microsoft.

Dustin Brown

Principal Creative Director

Yulia Makhmudova

Art Director

Alexis Copeland

Samuel R.Clarke 

Director Creative Studio

Leitin Pedro

3D Visual Designer 2

Ohemaa Dixon

Design Social Strategy Lead

Brian Townsend

Principal Design Manager

Olivia Xu

3D Designer

Jooyeon Chae

Senior Designer

Worldbuilding ​in 3D

Panel discussion

The Xbox Design team will share how they created anticipation, passion and desire for Starfield: one of the hottest game launches this console generation, and how their efforts went above and beyond a pure game launch.

Gianni Candy

Visual Designer

Emma Fried

Designer 2

Monique Chatterjee

Senior Design Director

Treasure Jansen

Brand love in product: Starfield launch​

Design talk

In recent years we’ve been successfully creating peak brand love moments in our key products. These moments create unique equities and contribute to memorable relationships with our audiences. ​

Join this session to learn from creators of the reimagined Teams backgrounds and Xbox Pride controller and discover how you can create peak moments in your own work.

Kaity Butcher

Creative Producer

Colin Day

Elliott Hsu

Principal Designer

Aleksey Fedorov

Director of Global Brand Marketing

Building brand love into product

At Microsoft we cocreate in a community. ​

Join a collective of representatives from brand, marketing, and product teams as they share their reflections from behind the scenes untangling our most important AI product – Copilot. 

Kurtis Beavers

Principal Design Director

Cassie Klingler

Principal Art Director

Chelsea Simek

Principle UX Engineering Manager

Brad Singley

Malina Johnson

Copilot GTM, Creative, Brand 

Ju Hyun Lee

Phyllis Murphy

Senior Creative Director

Co-creating Copilot

Great work starts with a brief. What makes a great brief? And what happens after the brief? ​

Join one of our most esteemed creative partners – Tendril – on a journey behind the brief. The team behind some of the most memorable creative work from Microsoft will share best practices, cutting-edge work and insights. ​

Tendril

Creative Studio

Behind the ​brief

Brand & visual design

Learn strategies from your colleagues to advance your career, navigate challenges, and grow as a designer.

As a content creator, I had to produce original ideas, a lot of them. I couldn’t wait for inspiration to strike, so I studied how to be creative and applied it to my work. Now I’m a manager of creative people, so I must help and teach them these principles so they can thrive. This talk is for those who manage creative people or who want to be more creative in their own work. And yes, I’ll tell you what the cow thing is about.

Doug Thomas

Senior Production Manager

Managing Creative People: Creative Like a Cow

Lightning talk

"Deep work," "flow," "deliberate practice"--whatever you call it, this state of intense concentration can be where you produce your most meaningful and impactful work. But finding the time and energy can be tricky when you're navigating urgent deadlines and competing priorities. This quick talk will introduce some key ideas around deep work and offer tips for integrating it into your design practice in the way that works best for you.

Jenny Williams

Senior Content Designer

Deep Work for Design Disciplines

Becky's journey has taken her--quite literally--all over the place. Her career has spanned multiple continents and almost a dozen product teams at Microsoft. Having been in the industry since the tech startup boom in the 90's, Becky has seen some stuff and she'd love to share her personal and professional journey with you, including tips for finding joy, discovering insights, and staying curious along the way.

Becky Haruyama

Designing your life

A discussion on how ICs can exert influence and drive positive change within their teams. Cover strategies to amplify your voice, make a lasting impact on team culture, and understand the challenges of influencing without authority.

Apriet Kenig

Mehul Sharma

Lily Ko

Brandi King

Design Program Manager II

Suzana Canuto

Pascal Lola

Aja Hall

Product Designer 1

Ethel Xu

Designer II

Culture by ICs

Join us for "Empowering Career Growth: Strategies & Toolkits for Success" a transformative event aimed at redefining career development strategies. Dive into the newest toolkits and processes, boosting your proficiency in guiding and advancing career paths effectively. Specifically curated for individuals and people managers within the UX discipline, this gathering is a prime opportunity to network, gain knowledge, and enhance your professional trajectory. Seize this chance to enrich your career journey and foster growth.

Hui Liu

Empowering Career Growth: Strategies & Toolkits for Success

Join us for an engaging exploration of the dynamic world of UX Design through the eyes of early-career trailblazers and seasoned senior leaders. They will reflect on pivotal moments, the evolving landscape of design, and the strategies they employed to stay at the forefront of this dynamic field. Whether you're an aspiring UX designer seeking to launch your career or a seasoned professional looking to gain fresh perspectives, this panel promises to be a source of inspiration and practical advice, as we uncover the secrets to designing a successful and thriving future for yourself. 

Melroy D'Souza

Principal UX Director

Suz Marashi

Principal Product Designer

Nathan Auer

Head of Design

Andy Hurley

Maliha Lakhani

Amanda Poh

Product Designer 2

Designing YOUR future: Thriving across all stages of your career

A panel discussion on what factors led to a transition away from management, and back to individual contribution. We will explore our backgrounds, our aspirations, and what we've learned so far. 

Orvar Halldorsson

Creative Director

Miles Anderson

Kelly Graham

Jeff Fleischmann

XBOX: Paths to Principal Design IC

Connect isn't a four letter word...but it kind of is. It's like clockwork--whenever we receive that email telling us that "Connect season is here!" we are immediately haunted by memories of sifting through countless emails, decks, calendar invites, chats, and crumpled up Post-It notes in an effort to piece together a narrative of the many projects we've completed throughout the semester. Over the past two years, Jenny and her team have developed a system for proactively planning and consistently documenting their goals so that Connect season is more of a celebration, and less of a chore. Jenny looks forward to showing you how you can adopt her team's processes in order to more effectively prepare for Connect season, without breaking a sweat.

Jenny Lanier Wolski

Senior Design Manager

Conquer Your Connect 

Career & growth

Explore the evolving landscape of content design + AI, and discover essential design tools and best practices.

This panel discussion focuses on the unique considerations of AI, Copilot and Prompt Engineering and how they are revolutionizing Content Design by offering new tools for creativity, efficiency, and personalization. Panelists will talk about how designers must adapt to these technologies by understanding their capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations to harness their full potential in shaping engaging and impactful content experiences.

Isobel McCrum

Content Designer

Roxanne Kenison

Principal Content Designer

Peter Tysver

Jonathan Foster

Principal Content Design Manager

Perspectives on AI, Copilot, and prompt engineering from Content Designers

Join us for an engaging panel discussion exploring the dynamics of success and impact within the Content Design discipline. Our panelists, representing various career stages, will discuss the intricacies of becoming product-focused leaders, the role of visibility in achieving success and impact, and the art of managing constant self-advocacy.

Amy King

Emma Ryan

Kate O'Leary

Principal Content Experience Manager

Kirsten Ballweg

Content Design career growth: Success and impact at every career stage

As the digital landscape continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, Content Design stands at the forefront of innovation and adaptation. Join us for a dynamic panel discussion Content Design leaders delve into the future of our discipline, the pivotal role AI plays in shaping its trajectory, and what we can do now to stay relevant and impactful.

Trish Winter-Hunt

Dylan Romero

Doug Kim

Predicting the future of Content Design

Don't have a content designer on your team? This lightening talk is for you! I'll walk you through a top-level process for creating your design and the content within it, without the aid of a content designer. Contains an overview and tips on what content designers address so you can feel more confident that your content fits Microsoft style and is valuable to customers. 

Stephanie Shenk

Content Designer II

How to design without a Content Designer

Let's talk about what it's like to rebrand an app that resonnates with Gen Z. While also paying attention to leadership's favorite three-letter acronyms (like ROI and OKR). And how to convince your partners that "yeet" will not be the new "delete".

Speaking Their Language: Connecting with LT and Gen Z to give GroupMe its voice

We'll give you some general tips for creating content design principles and some specific ones for doing it at Microsoft. We'll walk you through the process we used to write our new Teams Content Design Principles and share all kinds of stuff we learned along the way.

Jon Johnstone

Inger Carter

How to create content design principles

What’s in store for UX content over the coming months and years? After 20 years of working in UX content, including 5 years at Microsoft, I’m astounded and excited about the potential future of content design. Let’s discuss the role of UX content designers as truth seekers and ethical barometers—and what we as individuals and teams can do to influence and shape the evolution of our field.

Erica Jorgensen

Author

Looking back to look forward: What does the future of content design hold?

Discover how the Xbox Design team utilizes internal AI tools like Foundry Toolkit, to complement our content design strategy.

Devin Brown

Design System Manager

Karlo Reyes

Senior Design Lead

AI on Easy Mode: Streamlining Content Creation

Join us for a session where we tackle the balancing act between the drive for productivity in tech today and our quest for personal well-being. We're challenging the status quo with a 'do less, better' strategy, focusing on product quality and personal well-being amidst the pressures of corporate realities today. Discover how Teams Content Design's smart planning—from embedding content designers into feature teams, to fearless prioritization, to project sizing and capacity tracking—helps us build amazing products that help our company succeed—and enable us to do meaningful, fulfilling work that leaves us feeling energized at the end of the day.

Amy Gebler

Lisa Young

Principal Content Design Director

Do less, better: It's about our customers and products. And us. 

The human emotional experience - which fluctuates constantly - has a very real impact on how we use and experience products. Learn how best practices in content design support users with a diverse cognitive and mental health needs and get a first look new design and advocacy resources by the Microsoft Inclusive Design team. 

Tany Holzworth

Will Brennan

Inclusive Design for Mental Health Toolkit

Learn how a pioneering partnership between Data Cloud Studio research and content design is turning content designers into "citizen researchers." The SWIFT Citizen Content Research program enables content designers to conduct their own impactful research that has already guided the design of more than 20 key terms in Fabric and Power BI, making our products more clear and useful. We'll tackle the challenges of adopting new skills and technologies, and share a step-by-step DIY process for research—from preparation to reporting.

Veronika Monohan

UX Researcher II

Heather Bloyer

UX Content Designer II

Growing content design impact with SWIFT: a citizen content research program

Discover the untapped potential of UX content designers in this transformative session that shows you how you can amplify your role and make a broader impact.  Through engaging collaborative case studies, we'll unveil how content designers can leverage their unique skills to influence interdisciplinary teams, improve the product design process, and address challenges from bug bashing to developer handoffs. Learn how adopting a 'manage up' strategy empowers content designers to advocate for impactful solutions without direct authority.

Wailana Kalama

Crafting Clarity: The content designer as an agent of change

Learn how to use a simple tool to cut through complexity, build understanding, and inspire your work in content design. Concept maps are a light-weight approach to creating the structure you need to design complex systems with confidence. In this session, we’ll share the five steps to building a concept map and a couple of case studies that demonstrate how you can use concept maps to tackle terminology, collaborate with your team, and design more intuitive experiences.

Kim Bennett

Senior Content Design Manager

Katherine Sather

Cutting through complexity with concept maps

Content design

Explore ways to scale and innovate on process, foster design culture, and deliver results. 

It has been one of the most rewarding experiences designing Azure Copilot for edge. We learned to cultivate strong ties with product team, navigating complex stakeholder dynamics, and spotting opportunities proactively. Come join us for an adventure and leave with practical tools for your daily work!

Javy Wang

UX Designer

Zhengke (“jen-ka”)

UX Researcher

Azure Copilot for Edge Design Case Study

Discover the impact of pair designing for highly technical product teams. This talk explores how collaboration enhances creativity, enabling the design pair to confidently tackle larger projects. With the strength of diverse perspectives and seamless integration skills, pair designing allows the constant feedback loop between designers to foster rapid idea refinement. Join us to learn how we unlocked the full potential of our team and elevated our products through the dynamic practice of pair designing.

Asmita Misra

Senior UX Designer

Tony Tran

Elevating Design: The Power of Pair Designing

Join a panel of Designers & Researchers across Miscrosoft who focus on generative AI for a mission critical audience at Microsoft: Developers. Our experts will discuss their experiences and learnings in building user-centered AI experiences for this highly technical user, in turn empowering developers to create amazing things.

Mary Merlau

Principal UX Researcher

Adapting and designing AI experiences for developers

Design operations

DESIGN WEEK