Overview

Microsoft Start is a content hub for millions of Microsoft users across Windows, Edge, Bing, and mobile. In addition to news, sports, and video, the platform was experimenting with daily strip comics to drive new organic traffic in the US market. Recognizing the global growth of the comics and manga industry, I co-led the design of a north-star framework to expand beyond strip comics and position Microsoft Start as a destination for serialized graphic novels and manga across global markets.

Situation

The comics industry had grown into an $8B global market fueled by Marvel and DC’s Hollywood investments and increasing readership across Europe and Asia. Microsoft’s early experiments with daily strip comics showed potential but lacked the depth to engage fans at scale. The opportunity was to design a system capable of supporting longer-form content, immersive reading, and community features while leveraging the reach of the Microsoft Start ecosystem.

Task

As co-lead designer, I was responsible for framing the vision and building a scalable design system that could adapt to global comics and manga use cases.

Researched leading competitors (Apple Books, Kindle, Webtoon, Tapas, Marvel, Inkr) to identify must-have features and differentiation opportunities.
Defined structural requirements: entry points, navigation, immersive reading, metadata display, content advisories, revenue drivers, and community engagement features.
Designed wireframes and mapped end-to-end user flows for onboarding, discovery, reading, and engagement.
Created atomic components to accelerate iteration and ensure consistency.
Built a high-fidelity proposal prototype demonstrating the framework’s potential.
Presented the prototype to Microsoft senior leadership, including the SVP of Product Engineering and CVP of Design & Content for Windows & Devices.

Results

The pilot was well-received and secured leadership commitment to expand development:

$500K in new project funding to license publisher content for testing
A new partnership between North American and Japanese teams to run user-ready test flights
Recognition of the framework as a scalable approach to future content verticals on Microsoft Start

Reflection

This project highlighted the importance of designing for both immediate feasibility and long-term scalability. By grounding the framework in competitor research and atomic design principles, I was able to present a vision that was ambitious yet actionable and continues to this day in the Japanese market. The key lesson was that executive buy-in requires more than strong design. It also requires a clear articulation of business value and coordination that bridges global teams.

View Prototype