In 2018, I was a UX design intern at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. I was part of the Office Media Group, the organization that oversees Microsoft's media creation and sharing tools from Paint to Photos.
My project for the summer was centered around the Windows Video Editor, in which I was tasked with creating a design that allowed users to customize their own title cards and add them to their video. Throughout the summer, I worked alongside engineers, and was able to eventually ship the product onto the actual editor.
Microsoft
UX Design Intern
Figma, Usertesting.com, customer interviews
2021 - 2022
Understanding the Domain
A large chunk of my 12-week internship comprised of conducting research to better understand the domain. Throughout the process, I went through numerous user-created content and competitor analysis (other video editors and editing platforms). The point of this was to see what sort of user interfaces customers were already familiar with and understand their needs through the content they are creating.
Through my research, I found that there are many patterns within demographic groups, that most videos are between 30 seconds to 10 minutes long, and that many free editing softwares are either too complicated to use or too limiting of one’s creativity. Along the way, I also stumbled upon the Fortnite mobile game, where users can create their own banners, and decided to further explore customization options in video games as a way for users to build their title cards for their videos.
Understanding the User
While I took time to understand the domain, it was important to understand the user. Some methods I took were to read reports from previous user studies and research from other related projects, conduct interviews with actual customers, and have flash feedback sessions where I asked customers their thoughts on my prototypes.
Several of my research findings were surrounded around how people learned how to use video editing software, what editing tools users use and how they use it, and what editing features users desire and need.
Lo-fidelity Prototyping & Brainstorm Sessions
I created a new feature in which users can create their own title cards by choosing their own font, color, and background. Throughout this process, I collaborated with the Art team, conducted research on the target group and on different types of backgrounds, and conducted quick tests to create original backgrounds that could be used for the title cards.
At the end of my prototyping, I was able to test my designs through various methods that included of Microsoft-organized usability testing, self-organized user testing, and testing amongst colleagues at work. From the testing, 100% of participants understood how title cards worked; however, some users wanted more options for text customization.
Because I worked on this product from beginning to end, I was able to learn several things from the shipping experience. First, I learned the importance of constant collaboration and communication, especially with other disciplines as engineering, the tedious, yet important process of identifying bugs and fixing them, and lastly understanding the constraints around designing. There are always constraints whether it's from findings from user research, or limitations to the code, that always need to be kept in mind while designing.
