Microsoft Viva Launch:
Designing an AI-powered onboarding system
An onboarding system that improved task success by 81% and increased user confidence by 22% in usability testing, built for a flagship enterprise platform.
PROJECT TIMELINE
6 months
Jan 2025 – Jun 2025
- Masters Capstone · Uni of Washington
MY ROLE
TEAMMATES
Outcomes from moderated usability testing during a sponsored UW × Microsoft Viva capstone.
PROBLEM & OPPORTUNITY
Onboarding is broken; new employees waste time switching tools and feel uncertain about their next steps.
Microsoft 365's onboarding process is fragmented. Employees face disorganized dashboards, emails, chat histories, and knowledge bases as they try to meet new role expectations.
There's no central resource for guidance, leading to wasted time, diminished confidence, and unclear onboarding experiences.
MY CONTRIBUTION
As the Lead UX Designer for the Viva dashboard, my focus was on designing the New employee onboarding experience. I owned:
Use case prioritization - User and Business metrics
End-to-end concept development - Research to Design and prototype
Wireframes → mid-fi → hi-fi prototype
Interaction design & micro interactions - Defining and Integration
System integration model - Finding gaps and opportunities in the current system.
Visual storytelling through presentation design for the Final delivery
OUR STRATEGY
How might we support new employees during onboarding to reduce cognitive overwhelm and increase confidence?
Introducing Viva Launch
A Viva suite application for seamless onboarding, combining all Viva Apps and features into one app. It serves as an adaptive assistant for new employees, enhancing new employee's experience.
USER FLOW: ALL THE NECESSARY INFORMATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
New Employee onboarding to Viva Launch
Provides all the necessary information for an employee to start their day 1
FEATURE: COPILOT CALENDAR
Manage calendar with Copilot
Copilot can streamline your scheduling by adding and editing events in your Outlook calendar based on your messages and activities. This not only saves time but also enhances employee efficiency.
FEATURE: AI TO-DO LIST
Update your task progress easily
Your engagement with Copilot and Viva Launch will enable Copilot to track your task progress, update it accordingly, and mark it off your list as you complete each item.
Netnography Research
Employee
Interviews
SME interviews
Market
Research
DISCOVERY AND INSIGHTS
How does the whole system come together to onboard an employee?
I spoke to employees, observed behaviors, and studied the ecosystem to understand where onboarding breaks down and how to fix it.
User Insights from triangulated data
Employees rely heavily on informal channels (Slack, email) for onboarding clarity.
People forget where they found critical info — ‘I saw it somewhere in Teams..."
Acronym confusion = repeated support pings.
Docs are scattered across Teams, OneDrive, Outlook threads, and Viva.
Design pillars that shaped the solution
These four principles became the foundation for our design direction. Every interaction, feature, and layout decision in the Copilot Dock was shaped by these pillars to ensure clarity, relevance, and ease during onboarding.
Seamlessly Contextual
Quietly Directive
Very Actionable
Progress-Aware
My Contribution
Built Copilot Task Support
Defined Dashboard Logic
Designed Core Onboarding Flow
The onboarding flow reduced entry friction by surfacing clear tasks, timelines, and team context.
The dashboard structure improved information clarity and reduced early-stage disorientation.
Developed a reusable framework for Copilot-enhanced onboarding, scoped within the Viva ecosystem.