Office Help Redesign

Reimagining Support Across Web, In-App,
and System Layers

Role: Lead Designer: set direction and produced visual design, IA, and interaction patterns

Timeline: One year, multi-phase initiative

High-level overview shown here. Full artifacts and deeper insights available upon request.

The Challenge

The Office help experience had become fragmented and outdated. Years of organic growth had led to a sprawling support site, siloed content strategies, and inconsistent entry points across web and in-app surfaces. Users struggled to find answers, and internal teams lacked a unified foundation for design or delivery.

  • No shared visual or interaction model

  • Inconsistent help surfaces across platforms

  • Search was brittle and metadata unaligned

  • Help content duplicated, disconnected, and disorganized

  • Users had to leave the app to get meaningful answers

Strategic Foundation

We began by rebuilding from the inside out. We conducted a full cross-functional audit with researchers, engineers, and content teams to identify pain points and opportunities. The centerpiece was a deep taxonomy redesign: overhauling the structure and types of help content available.

This work culminated in a cross-org hackathon where we defined six core content types. These became the foundation of a new, modular system, easily scaled across platforms and content teams.

Defined Content Types:

  • Compare – Feature differences across apps/devices

  • Conceptual – Feature or product overviews

  • Quick Start & How-To – Task-based instructional guides

  • Install & Setup – Sequential onboarding support

  • Troubleshooting / Walkthrough – Decision-based flows

  • Tutorial / Training – Structured learning experiences

Design Exploration

I led the overall experience redesign and contributed hands-on to in-app surfaces, making help content accessible in context and in real time.

We tackled the entire ecosystem, including:

  • Information Architecture

  • Branding & Visual Design

  • Navigation patterns

  • Search experience

  • Multi-step task flows

  • Filtering and hierarchy

  • Feedback/telemetry systems

  • Learning mode pathways

  • In-app help integration

  • Authoring guidance for scale

The Solution

We delivered a multi-surface design system for help content: unifying the support site, in-app experiences, and underlying content structure.

  • Built an app-first navigation model for product-specific help

  • Embedded dynamic help inside Office apps

  • Aligned visuals and tone with Microsoft Design Language

  • Delivered clean landing pages, modular templates, and clear hierarchy

  • Created a phased roadmap guided by telemetry and content usage

  • Streamlined authoring for content strategists across product teams

Homepage.png
Admin Help.png
Excel Page.png

Impact

I led the redesign of the Office support site and in-app help experiences, improving both user outcomes and internal workflows. The process also restored team morale by aligning goals, building trust, and streamlining collaboration.

For users:

  • ↑ Net Promoter Score: Marked improvement in user satisfaction post-launch

  • ↑ Task Completion & Resolution Rates: Users found answers faster, with fewer drop-offs

  • ↑ In-App Engagement: Embedding help directly in the experience drove higher usage and success

For internal teams:

  • ↓ Operational Overhead: Structured templates and shared taxonomy made content creation and updates easier

  • ↑ Design System Adoption: A unified design language ensured consistency across web and app surfaces

  • ↑ Scalability: Modular content types supported rapid growth and cross-product alignment