2020 - 2021

Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard was launched on Teams in 2021. It is a virtual whiteboard that allows educators or business users to collaborate on video calls.

I was brought on to the Whiteboard team as a contract interaction designer. And I led the effort on onboarding, responsive layout, and inclusive design. The process includes leading brainstorming sessions, contributing to the unique Whiteboard design system, and working closely with PMs and engineers to ship the features.

Onboarding experience research

To kick off the design process of Whiteboard onboarding and teaching experience, My design manager and I organized a brainstorming session with the Whiteboard design team. The goal is to identify important features first-time users need to be aware of.

The session included:
1. Brainstorming features/mental model we want to teach users
2. Sorting them into categories
3. Assigning priority

Brainstorming in progress…

The final list of high priority features to include in the teaching experience by category.

Design process

There was a relatively tight time constraint in this project. In order to make sure that the urgent on-boarding communications are delivered promptly, I worked closely with the PM of this project to define the stages and scope of the launch of the teaching experience.

Stage 1: Transition between old whiteboard and new whiteboard

We quickly shipped an in-app notification to notify users of the upcoming new Whiteboard interface.

Stage 2: Essential onboarding

When a user create a new Whiteboard for the first time, a simple guided tour would be shown to help them locate the essential tools.

Users can also find help with Whiteboard issue quickly from the in-app help hub.

Stage 3: Targeted onboarding

Stage 3 features are scoped to be developed well after the launch of Whiteboard. They are a north star vision of what the future of teaching experience could be - seamlessly integrated within the workflow of users.

Surfacing tips based on behavioral triggers.

A shortcut helper will appear automatically when an action is performed.