2024 Microsoft Summer Design Internship

During the summer of 2024, I had the privilege of working as a Design Intern on the Management UX team in Microsoft Security at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA. Over the course of 12 weeks, I had the opportunity to work on an end-to-end project reimagining the Managed Home Screen configuration experience.

Due to confidentiality agreements, I am unable to disclose specific details about the project or certain design decisions. Instead, I’d like to share a high-level overview of the process and key takeaways from my three-month journey.

What is Managed Home Screen?

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based endpoint management solution that manages user access to organizational resources and simplifies app and device management across mobile devices, desktops, and virtual endpoints.

Managed Home Screen is an app for corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices managed through Intune and running in multi-app kiosk mode. For these devices, Managed Home Screen acts as a launcher for other approved apps to run on top of it, enabling IT admins to control and customize their devices by restricting capabilities and limiting access to only approved apps. This empowers their frontline workers with secure and streamlined access to necessary work apps and data, without the clutter of a standard device setup.

The tool is invaluable across a wide range of sectors, benefiting industries like retail, healthcare, and transportation, to drive improved operational flow and worker efficiency.

For frontline workers, this means quick, distraction-free access to essential line-of-business apps and M365 tools like Teams and Outlook, enhancing their productivity and focus.

Managed Home Screen also facilitates a seamless device-sharing experience. For example, a retail employee using a shared tablet for inventory or a nurse using a shared device for patient records can easily pass the device to the next coworker on shift. This is because Managed Home Screen ensures a smooth, secure sign-out, eliminating security concerns and maintaining a consistent and predictable user experience.

Streamlining the Complex

However, despite its critical role, the current configuration process for Managed Home Screen is overly complex and unintuitive. IT administrators must navigate across multiple workloads in the Intune console to set up device groups, approve and assign Managed Home Screen and other apps, and manage both device configuration policies and app configuration policies to configure the complete list of features.

The goal of my project was to streamline this configuration process and design an intuitive experience that better serves IT admins’ needs.

Understanding the Current State

To better understand the existing system, I conducted a comprehensive audit of the current experience and spoke to various stakeholders, including customer support teams, engineers, and IT admin teams from Managed Home Screen’s largest customers. This allowed me to understand user preferences and identify key pain points throughout the configuration process. Using these insights, I mapped out the user journey, highlighting critical challenges and pain points users face along the way. This enabled me to work with my PM to identify P0 requirements for the redesign, ensuring that the project goals were clearly defined and aligned with both user needs and business objectives.

Crafting the Solution

From my research findings, I began design explorations for a “north star” configuration experience, aiming to simplify the user flow and enhance the clarity of the process to address key user pain points and challenges. Throughout the design process, I maintained close collaboration with my PM, engineers, customer support teams, and fellow designers from the Management UX team to gather ongoing feedback and refine the design. I also had the opportunity to present my work at the organization’s All Hands meeting, where I shared the proposed design with leadership and the broader Security UX organization.

Validating Design Decisions

To validate my designs, I conducted a focus group session to assess user expectations and evaluate the effectiveness and intuitiveness of the proposed updates using my prototypes. Through this experience, I gained valuable insights into participant recruitment, creating a design deck, and crafting user testing tasks that minimize bias.

The session included 12 active participants comprising of IT mobile architects, MDM admins, and mobility system engineers from major global organizations. The feedback allowed me to gauge reactions to the proposed workflows and interactions, as well as better understand the users’ intent and preferred behaviors. This allowed me to iterate on the configuration experience that best addressed the users’ needs.

Sharing the Final Proposal

I presented the final design to PMs, designers, and engineers on the Security Management team. Additionally, I created detailed design and accessibility specification documentation to facilitate a smooth handoff to engineers and future designers working on the project.

Key Takeaways

Embracing ownership and effective communication

Through this project, I honed my ability to take ownership over my work and its outcomes. I established and adhered to my own timeline, ensuring that I met critical deadlines while managing my workload effectively. I also developed skills in driving and facilitating cross-functional meetings, learned to articulate my design rationale clearly, and realized the importance of reprioritizing on the fly and adapting to these changes without compromising quality. I also recognized the value of proactively seeking support when needed. By embracing collaboration and open communication, I was able to maintain a more efficient and productive work process.
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Navigating complexity and building confidence

Tasked with a proposing a “north star” experience, this project challenged me to explore beyond the limitations of the current framework to push for a better user experience. Initially, it was daunting to design for such niche, specialized users, but by reading documentation and engaging with customers and support teams, I gained a deeper understanding of the product and the challenges customers face.

Balancing my exploration of an ideal UX with the broader Intune console’s constraints and existing patterns was challenging. However, maintaining steady progress and proactively consulting members on the team was able to inform my design decisions. These regular feedback sessions and presentations have allowed me to build comfort and confidence in communicating and advocating for my designs.