My Account, Microsoft’s Business Account Portal

Team: Engineers, Designers, PM Focus: UX Design

I designed approximately 60% of https://myaccount.microsoft.com/, Microsoft’s self-service portal for business accounts. The redesign transformed how employees at Azure’s 350,000+ business customers interact with their accounts, enabling them to independently manage app access, group memberships, and permissions. This shift reduced IT helpdesk tickets while empowering users with immediate access to their tools.

Old Design

New Designs

The User Need

Employees at businesses using Azure frequently needed to access new applications, join team groups, or adjust their account permissions. However, they couldn’t perform these tasks independently – each request required contacting their IT helpdesk. This created friction for employees who had to wait for support tickets to be resolved, while also burdening IT teams with repetitive, low-complexity requests that pulled them away from higher-priority work.

The Business Context

For Microsoft stakeholders, this design effort had two goals:

Reduce IT burden: Enable users to handle routine account tasks independently, decreasing helpdesk tickets at the 350,000+ companies using Azure.
Increase product value: Implement self-service features for app management, group membership, and permissions – capabilities that would make Azure more competitive and valuable to enterprise customers.

An early sketch of the “My Profile” UI.

Information Architecture and Navigation

One of the biggest challenges was organizing multiple feature areas – user profiles, app management, groups, and access controls – into a coherent structure. I created a “visual sitemap” using wireframes to show not just the hierarchy, but how users would actually navigate between sections. This helped stakeholders understand the proposed structure more concretely than a traditional sitemap would allow.

After collaboration with the team, we aligned on My Profile as the main landing page, with more advanced features (My Apps, My Groups, and My Access) accessible through a context switcher in the upper left corner.

Design System Contributions

I adapted Microsoft’s existing design assets to create a tailored system for My Account, adding detailed annotations and UX guidance to help the team understand when and how to use each component.

To make design resources accessible beyond the design team, I recreated the system in PowerPoint – enabling PMs and other stakeholders to mock up ideas and participate in design conversations without specialized tools. This democratized the design process and improved cross-functional collaboration.

Learn More About My Process as I Designed…

The App Management System (My Apps)

Designing My Apps

Microsoft’s existing app system displayed every application a user had access to—a flat list that buried useful apps under hundreds of minor system processes and integrations.

The old “Apps” UI.

I redesigned this as a customizable interface where users could favorite and organize their apps, drawing inspiration from mobile home screen patterns. Using drag-and-drop (with keyboard navigation as an accessible alternative), users could favorite or reorder applications with a single interaction.

Prototype testing validated the approach: after a brief instructional tooltip, all participants successfully organized their apps and appreciated the ability to surface their most-used tools.

User hovers over the app they wish to move.

User begins dragging app.

User drags app to favorites, highlighting primary favorites list.

User drags app to a specific favorites list.

The Login and Authentication System

Redesigning authentication was a major component of the My Account project. The challenge: authentication setup flows needed to work in two contexts—both as a settings page feature and as interrupting prompts for users who hadn’t met their organization’s security requirements.

I solved this by designing all authentication flows within modal dialogs, allowing them to appear consistently across any screen or context. To prevent overwhelming users with complex security steps in a constrained space, I broke each flow into single-step progressions, guiding users through one action at a time.

The Microsoft Authenticator setup flow appearing in a dialog box over the Security Info section of My Profile.

The Microsoft Authenticator setup flow appearing as an interrupt.

I designed setup flows for all of Microsoft’s authentication methods—app-based verification, SMS codes, security keys, and more. The USB security key flow was particularly rewarding: it was featured on the main screen at Microsoft Ignite, showcasing how even technical security features could have an intuitive, approachable interface.

An interrupt where a user has chosen to authenticate using a USB security key.

Final Mock-ups

My access – List of all access – 6 — My Access

Mobile Drag Within Fav page 1 — My Apps - Mobile

Mobile notif and code 1 — Authentication Interrupt - Mobile

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