Upon the successful launch of the Microsoft Casual Games (MCG) website in June 2022, the MCG team pursued an initiative to enhance user engagement by extending a seamless click-through experience to the Casual Games landing page across various entry points within the Windows OS and Edge browser ecosystem.
01. Enhancing casual game discoverability on various canvases
02. Providing re-entry point of played games to the revisited users
I led the entire design process, conducting research and iterating from scratch to final implementation. Collaboration with other design teams maintained consistency across MSN start, Edge NTP, and Windows platforms, while partnering with Gaming team stakeholders ensured user feedback integration for ongoing refinement.
MSN gaming engineering team
MSN gaming PMs
Edge designer team
Design researcher
TBR design team
Maximal Team UX Research team
Edge PM team
Windows team MSN design system org
Accessibility support
Microsoft Casual Games
By featuring these SD cards on Microsoft Edge's new tab page and Windows 10 & 11 flyout, MCG aims to boost user engagement, encouraging increased visits and gameplay on the Casual Games Landing Experience.
The SD cards vary in names, designs, and features across different canvases.
NTP card
SD card for Microsoft Edge
New Tab Page
Prong card
SD card for Windows 10 (Prong 1)
& 11 (Prong 2)
Following the user testing of CTR and data collection via the NTP card and Prong card, we plan to introduce The NTP Carousel. It will span the full width of the NTP, offering easy access to games. In addition to implementing the new feature, we will adopt a new style guide provided by the Microsoft Start team.
NTP carousel
SD card V2
During Phase 1, our attention was dedicated to overhauling the current SD card design.
Our main focus was to:
With our primary objectives firmly established, I embarked on an exploration of the two card design layouts, taking into consideration the user journey. Following this thorough investigation, I proceeded to conduct user research aimed at discerning preferences between the two design options.
After conducting user research on the card layout design, I continued refining the design through iterations, progressing from low to high fidelity concepts. In crafting the final SD card design, we explored two directions: the Game card and the Genre card.
After finishing the development of NTP card V1, our next step was to design the NTP carousel for Microsoft Start.com. This card was intended to provide users with a full-width experience on the new tab page, allowing for easier navigation through content and features. Our goal was to create a visually engaging interface that maximizes screen space while staying consistent with the design and functionality of Microsoft Start.com.
In the ongoing development phase, we seamlessly integrated the latest Microsoft Start style guide into the design of Casual Games SD cards. This involved meticulously adjusting the text string area, particularly the game title, to ensure optimal localization across different languages.
Furthermore, following the expansion of game genres from 6 to 28, we made the decision to revamp the genre labels. This was necessary to effectively accommodate longer titles such as "Simulation" and "Multiplayer" within the limited space available.
