Microsoft: Education Tools & Sites

Creating a media authoring tool concept for teachers

Role

UX/UI Designer

Role

UX/UI Designer

Role

UX/UI Designer

Industry

Microsoft

Industry

Microsoft

Industry

Microsoft

Years

2002-2007

Years

2002-2007

Years

2002-2007

Microsoft and Education

At Microsoft I worked in EdPG (Education Product Group) which has sadly since been disbanded. The flagship product of this group was Microsoft Encarta™, which was one of the first media items to be released by Microsoft.

Grava: Lesson Builder for Teachers

For a few years, my main project was as the designer on a proof-of-concept project codenamed "Grava." The intent of the project was to demonstrate a new media and lesson builder for teachers.

Keep in mind, this was 2004! It was using the then VERY new Microsoft Vista
At the time much of the work was experimenting with the new Windows Presentation Framework, which as Vista (at the time codenamed Longhorn) was evolving, and quite experimental.

Online Classroom Systems

A second major project I worked on at Microsoft was around concepting online teaching and classroom systems. Reflecting on this after almost 20 years, it is remarkable how much the wireframes resemble Google Classroom, Miro, and other current workspaces.

Encarta™ Kids

I was also a part of the Encarta team, both online and for packaged products. We worked on an encyclopedia product specifically for younger kids, called (appropriately enough) "Encarta Kids"

As this product was launched in the early 2000's, I now find myself being part of Millenial nostalgia — as evidenced by TikTok videos
The Encarta Kids UI is shown above on a period-appropriate desktop computer.
As we were working in 2002-2005 on an encyclopedia project, we found ourselves competing with a young upstart encyclopedia site, called "Wikipedia." You can guess how that turned out.

Encarta™ Kids

I was also a part of the Encarta team, both online and for packaged products. We worked on an encyclopedia product specifically for younger kids, called (appropriately enough) "Encarta Kids"

As this product was launched in the early 2000's, I now find myself being part of Millenial nostalgia — as evidenced by TikTok videos
The Encarta Kids UI is shown above on a period-appropriate desktop computer.
As we were working in 2002-2005 on an encyclopedia project, we found ourselves competing with a young upstart encyclopedia site, called "Wikipedia." You can guess how that turned out.