Michael David Watson
Work/Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft · Case study

A native-first redesign of OneDrive for Android.

  • Android Native Patterns
  • Mobile-first Strategy
  • Material Design
  • Cross-platform UX
  • Design Systems
  • Information Architecture
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
Jun 2014 — Jun 2015
Platform
Android
Shipped
KitKat → Lollipop, production

Overview

A Windows-first product, on a platform that wasn’t Windows.

OneDrive on Android had been built to mirror its Windows counterpart. Navigation, file actions, sharing and account switching all followed Microsoft conventions on a device that had its own.

The mandate was to lead the Android redesign as a native product: built to platform patterns first, then reconciled with cross-platform parity rather than the other way around.

Mobile-first principles set the bar for every subsequent design decision, from navigation to sharing.

Strategy

Three principles to break the Windows-first habit.

  1. 01

    Platform patterns first

    Lead with Android conventions for navigation, action bars, and sharing. Reconcile parity later, not first.

  2. 02

    One file model, many surfaces

    Anchor the experience on how people actually move files on a phone, not on how Windows Explorer thinks about them.

  3. 03

    Ship in stages

    KitKat first as the alignment test. Lollipop as the full Material redesign once the team and the patterns held.

Research

A unified theory of stuff, before a unified UI.

The team mapped how files, photos, shared items and accounts related across web, Windows and Android. The diagram became the alignment artifact, used to argue why the Android product could diverge from web on UI while staying coherent on model.

Competitive teardowns of Dropbox, Google Drive and Box ran in parallel, focused on file actions, sharing surfaces and account switching.

Design

From a KitKat alignment release to the Material rebuild.

The work shipped in two phases. KitKat first, as a fast, opinionated alignment release. Lollipop as the full Material redesign once the patterns and the team were ready.

KitKat: an alignment release to test the thesis

A focused overhaul of navigation, action bars and file actions, sized to ship before Material. It validated that native-first patterns outperformed the Windows-derived ones on every measured task.

Lollipop: a full Material rebuild

Navigation drawer, action bars, sheets and the photo gallery were rebuilt against Material spec. Type, motion and elevation followed the platform, not the Windows shell. The result felt like an Android product, not a Microsoft product on Android.

A navigation drawer that respected the model

Accounts, file types and shared spaces resolved into one drawer rather than three. The structure mapped to how people actually used OneDrive on mobile, not how the product had grown on Windows.

Outcome

Shipped to production across two Android generations.

2

Android versions shipped (KitKat, Lollipop)

1

design model unified across web, Windows and Android

Native

first across navigation, actions and sharing

Reflection

The argument was harder than the design.

Most of the work was convincing a Windows-anchored organization that native-first wasn’t disloyalty, it was discipline. The unified theory diagram did more for that argument than any mockup.

Once it was accepted, the KitKat ship gave the team permission to do the Material rebuild properly. Order mattered.

Previously

← Amazon Fire TV & Fire Tablet

Next

End of selected work