Windows Phone

UX Motion Design · Core Product Team · Full-Time

In 2009, I joined Microsoft as one of the first motion designers on the core team responsible for defining the Metro design language, later known as Microsoft Design Language. At the time, Microsoft was rethinking its approach to mobile and set out to create a smartphone experience that fundamentally broke from existing UI conventions.

I worked on the first version of Windows Phone, helping pioneer the motion language that became central to the platform’s identity. This included foundational interaction patterns such as Live Tiles, panorama transitions, seamless text motion, and system-level animations designed around clarity, rhythm, and speed. Motion was treated as a primary interface tool, not decoration, reinforcing a “glance and go” philosophy that allowed users to quickly scan information and move fluidly through the system.

The Start screen functioned as a dynamic dashboard, where Live Tiles surfaced real-time content and system state through motion rather than static icons. My work focused on how motion could communicate hierarchy, continuity, and responsiveness across the OS, shaping an experience that felt modern, fast, and distinctly different from competing platforms at the time.

This work laid the foundation for Microsoft’s approach to motion across products for years to come and remains a defining example of motion as a core part of product UX.