In usability, function should come before AI flair
When a product pushes AI or new interaction models before it gets the basics right, usability suffers. There is a consistent pattern in recent updates by Microsoft of elevating AI…
Microsoft Teams app bar changes: When “clean” design undermines usability
Tech companies have so many competing priorities that lead to design evolution and there is always a choice to be made around, Does this change help people do their work,…
90,000 People Sharing One Breath: Community at a Bad Bunny Concert in Buenos Aires
In August, my apartment unexpectedly went under construction two weeks before my lease renewal. As the jackhammers arrived outside my windows with a promise to stay for the next two…
Why “Build” isn’t an intuitive label in the new SharePoint App Bar
Nielsen Norman Group usability principles, “Create” is a better navigation label than “Build” because it aligns with users’ existing mental models, reduces ambiguity, provides clearer information scent, and describes a…
Context for systems is not the same as context for people
This article is a response to: Matt Slotnick’s article, Context Rules Everything Around Me: The Future Of Enterprise Applications There’s a growing assumption that if we just get context right…
Is it really social permission or should it be product restraint?
This is where the Microsoft leadership narrative deeply concerns me. Satya Nadella shared concerns about AI potentially losing its “social permission” if it doesn’t deliver broad societal value while we…
OneDrive and Microsoft 365 Copilot Search isn’t ready to replace the workday start experience: How Microsoft is putting AI before the most common user needs
For years, m365.cloud.microsoft served a simple but critical role as the central place to start the workday. Users could orient themselves on recent activity across files, regardless of storage location…
Peer Accountability Changes Culture and 50 Cent Sets the Standard
It is another one of those moments, brought to us by Netflix, where a docuseries takes over the cultural zeitgeist. It seems like every water cooler conversation and internet meme…
Emily Mancini 