Summary
During this internship, I worked on the Outlook team and led the design of Copilot Voice experiences for commuting scenarios. I focused on exploring contextual entry points and defining conversational design principles with the focus of increaing Daily Active Users (DAU) of Copilot Voice.
DURATION
June 2026 - September 2026
MY ROLE
User Research, UX Design, Prototyping, Testing
Background
Users spend a chunk of their morning piecing together their day and priorities.
At the start of the workday, users spend valuable time manually stitching together information from disparate sources—email threads, calendar invites, Word documents, and messaging channels.
HMW prepare Outlook Calendar users for their day during their morning commute?
My project looks at how Copilot Voice could close the gap during a moment where users are already thinking about their day but cannot safetly interact with their phone: the morning commute.
Project goals
Design a hands-free Copilot Voice experience within Outlook Mobile that surfaces what matters most before users even arrive at work.
Copilot is uniquely positioned to solve this problem because it can pull together work context from across multiple tools rather than leaving users to search for it themselves. Instead of requiring manual lookups across Outlook, Teams, and other sources, Copilot can identify the most relevant signals and distill them into a concise, voice-first morning briefing.
Key Outcomes
01
Users arrive at work fully oriented, with priority items addressed or queued up.
02
Increase WAU for Copilot Voice on Outlook Calendar Mobile.
Research
I narrowed my focus to 3 parts of the experience.
🛜
Entry Point
How does Copilot Voice show up at the right time, in a way that feels intuitive and easy to start?
❤️
Conversation
What should Copilot say, how much detail should it include, and how should it guide the user through decisions?
📹
Handoff
What should happen after the conversation, when the user is back at their desk and able to review details visually?
From research and competitor analysis, I defined 4 design principles to help guide my experience.
Right Modality
ideation
I started by considering multiple entry point options for Voice.
I focused on entry points that would be discoverable, contextual, and low-friction in commuting or multi-tasking situation.
Notification
Toast
SUA
Tooltip
I also considered pure voice invocation; however that's not a common pattern that is practiced in Microsoft patterns. I also looked into other modalities like CarPlay, although I wanted to foucs on moble first since it had more applications and can be used in mnay multi-tasking scenarios.
I advocated for an updated conversational design.
For the conversational model, I wanted to move beyond the "ask and answer" pattern. In a driving context, users should not have to figure out the perfect question. Instead, I explored a "notice, recommend, act" framework. Copilot should notice important changes, recommend what the user should do, and then support lightweight actions if the user chooses.
Ideation learnings
01
Categorizing fonts can help with font discovery and finding specific fonts.
02
Providing the option to search for a specific font targets unicorn users who have document requirements, such as students.
What's the best way to categorize fonts?
The key here was to find categories for Microsoft Word fonts which would resonate with users and help them to discover fonts which meet their expectations. I started by looking at common font categorizations from Google Fonts, Canva, and Font Book.
Typeface
Feeling/Aesthetic
Intent/Use-case
What users value in a font picker.
I interviewed users to get a better sense of what they look for in a font picker. Here are some common themes that I uncovered.
Recently used fonts
“I tend to use the same 5-7 fonts, I got to this section [recently used] anyways”
Find a font close to their “vision”
“I have a vision in my mind of what I’m looking for, so any help to narrow that down is helpful.”
Visual preview of the font
“My biggest issue is when it doesn’t give you preview of the font. I want to see which fonts I like, with what I’m working with”
Saving time
“I don’t normally know the name of the font. I end up scrolling and it wastes a lot of time”
The font categories were based on the overall 'look' of the fonts, since most users don’t know specific font names, but usually have a vision of what they want. The suggested fonts feature is helpful for users working with templates or pre-designed documents.
Balance
9:05
Untitled
Done
Back
Fonts
Recent
Suggested
Modern
Traditional
Script
Handwritten
Regular
Regular
Medium
Regular
Regular
Regular
Regular
Regular
Font Categories
Final design
With these ideas in mind, I crafted a video and detailed prototype to showcase the redesigned font picker and how it could seamlessly integrate into the existing Word Mobile design. I also demonstrated how styles could be overridden to support this change. The video served as a quick proposal for product managers and developers, allowing me to gather their feedback and insights.
Next Steps
User Testing and Feedback
The design process is always evolving and there's more to come with this project! I'm currently focused on creating high-fidelity prototypes to present in team proposals, allowing developers and product managers to provide feedback on functionality and feasibility. After refining the designs based on their input, I'll move into the user testing phase to gather real-world insights from users. This feedback will guide further iterations, ensuring the final design is intuitive and effective.
Reflection
Ensure you have all the context before the design process.
When I joined the team, the mobile Word experience was undergoing significant changes. It was crucial for me to have a clear understanding of my project, the product, business needs, and ongoing initiatives in the problem space. I made sure to meet with other designers on my team, product managers, and developers to have a better understanding of current efforts being made. Although this took time, it helped to give me a clearer idea of my project and plan how my design would fit into the current system.
Always have form an opinion when sharing with others.
This is a project that I'm leading, and I spent months diving deep into the problem space, learning about the users and the challenges they face. So naturally, I developed a strong perspective on how they behave and what solutions might work. Coming into discussions with a thoughtful opinion helps get everyone on the same page and leads to more relevant conversations.