Microsoft Store Launch
Microsoft, 2009
In 2009 I joined a small team at Microsoft that had just begun building the first version of MicrosoftStore.com.
Over the course of one hectic summer, we designed and built an enterprise e-commerce site in time for the October launch, timed to coincide with the release of Windows 7 and the opening of the first two retail stores.
Each of the six designers on the project had specific areas of responsibility. Mine were the global navigation and header, product browsing and search results, sorting and filtering, and store appointment booking.
The search results page. The refine panel on the left ended up being the inspiration for the browse tools I designed for Getty Images Music the following year.
The asset detail page. Another designer was the lead on this page, but this was one of those projects where everybody had their hands in everything.
Immediately after launch, the team moved into an optimization cycle, fixing the things we didn't get quite right for launch, and addressing issues we were hearing from customers and seeing in usability studies.
I also took this opportunity to document a style and maintenance guide (download a PDF):
Four months after launch, we learned that the site would be changing platforms and started a ground up redesign. And so it goes on the web.