Cortana and Outlook – Play My Emails – AI, Experience, and Design

PLAY MY EMAILS

Listen and interact with your important email on-the-go.

Microsoft AI, Cortana / 2017 - 2019

ROLES

// Product design lead - E2E from research, defining, UX/UI, implementation, and market delivery
// Drove partnerships with Outlook Mobile product, Speech technology, Voice designer and multiple other stakeholders

(Please have your sound on)

Catch up and plan ahead

Outlook “Play My Emails” (PME) is a first of its kind audio-email experience that helps users stay informed of important conversations and always be prepared for what is next during their commute and on-the-go settings.

PME transforms an outdated, heavy and visual email experience to an audio experience that is comfortable to listen to while you are distracted or on-the-go. PME is one of the first examples of how AI technology, empathy, and design works together to create a paradigm shifting experience, yet feel so natural.

The Experience:
Product Demo

(Please have your sound on) "Play My Emails" on iOS

Locations of teams and indivisual stakeholders of the project.

8+ teams, 5+ timezones, 2+ years

"Play My Emails" was a massive project with more than 8 different design, PM, and technology teams in 5 different timezone collaborating together for more than 2 years. One of my biggest role as the product design lead was to drive an effective rhythm of business, and continuously evolve them to fit the collective goals.

It really took a village to deliver the experience. But we did manage to have a lot of fun along the way :)

The not-so-linear product design process.

The Journey

The design process of PME was far from linear, not only due to the various stakeholders, but also the paradigm-defining nature of the project. With design in the forefront envisioning and defining the experience, multiple teams had to work in sync to actualize them.

(From left to right) Entrypoint button, quick summary section of your inbox, "Changes to your day" section that notifies updates of the day, email readouts, and Cortana's listening state.

Catch up and plan ahead... On-the-go

Catch up and plan ahead...
On-the-go

76% of Americans commute to work alone, with an average of commute time of 30 minutes. PME embraces this lost opportunity and allows busy professionals’ to catch up and plan ahead during their commute. PME reads out your focused inbox in a digestibe and valuable way, and lets you know of important events that may impact your day. PME also makes it super intuitive for you to use your voice to quickly navigate and act on your emails.

PME frees frees up your morning and after work times to focus on what's really important... you.

Audio and Attention

Consuming information in audio form, espeically when you are distracted comes with an interesting set of challenges and cognitive load. PME parses through your email metadata and delivers the most important and relevant information up front so you can easily make the choice dip in and out of small burst of focus effortlessly.

Important signals from your email contents can act as a beacon that helps your brain to snap into focus even while you are distracted or driving.

The Narrative Audio Framework

Through multiple rounds of iteration, testing and fine tuning, the team created a flexible yet effective narrative framework for a guided audio experience that allows you to quickly orient, proiritize, and act on your inbox while feeling in control - All through audio and voice.

Fifty Shades of Control

Our research unequivocally pointed to a simple fact: People want control over their content and what to do with them.

All controls including navigation, triaging, and contextual actions like replying has been prioritized to be done via voice at any point by simply saying “Hey Cortana”. Whether you are actively on your phone, on a treadmill, driving to work, or even when your phone is in your bag- You are always in control.