Outlook for Apple Watch
Know what's next, at a glance.
Product Designer | UX Program Manager
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Microsoft
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2015–2016
Shipped Outlook on watchOS 1 (Aug 2015) and watchOS 2 (Oct 2015); validated notifications as the primary use case.
Problem
Research consistently showed that people rely on Outlook to “know what’s next”: staying ahead of incoming mail and managing time across work and personal life. Wearables were a new way to deliver that at a glance: the closest device usually wins, and for watch owners the Apple Watch was closest, readable without unlocking. The category was early, with little real usage data, limited on-device prototyping, and an evolving third-party platform that came with real performance limits. The opportunity was an Outlook that improved on the native mail and calendar apps.
Approach
The project started as an Outlook hackathon. I prototyped notifications and glances to test the experience, and used the demo to secure funding. The working hypothesis was that notifications would be the primary use case, with few elaborate in-app interactions, since it’s usually easier to reach for your phone. I scoped the design to mail and calendar notifications, the watch face, and a focused glance, then iterated with research and telemetry.
Process
Early iterations
The glance screen first tried to show three things at once (unread count, next event, and follow-ups), which crowded the screen and truncated essentials like meeting location. Telemetry showed few people schedule or flag mail, so the glance reduced to unread count and the next event’s subject, time, and location. Paging through calendar made it hard to scan the day, and prototypes showed lists outperformed paged views, so the model moved to lists.
Final design
The watch face and glance surface mail and calendar without opening the app. Notifications are filtered to important mail to limit interruptions, and event reminders let you tell the organizer you’re running late.
Outcome
Shipped on watchOS 1 (2015) and watchOS 2, with bi-weekly updates. Usage confirmed notifications as the core use case and detailed in-app interaction as secondary, and the results made the case for bringing the same scenarios to Android Wear.
Mail notification
Calendar reminder
Watch face complications
At a glance
Lessons
Performance can make or break a wearable experience: user complaints kept the team’s tradeoffs grounded in reality. Prototypes and hackathons are effective for selling an idea and securing funding. And when data is scarce, ship something small and iterate from real feedback.