Enhancing One Note
on iPad

Rewriting the Rules of Note-Taking
Project Overview
OneNote on iPad lagged behind competitors like GoodNotes and Notability, particularly in its inking experience. With the growing popularity of Apple Pencil and iPad usage, we set out to create a pen-and-iPad-first approach to drive user satisfaction and bolster OneNote’s position in the note-taking market.

How might we reimagine OneNote’s inking experience on iPad to surpass competitor offerings, spark user delight, and drive growth in monthly active users?
In just one month, we conducted a focused vision exercise to shape the entire 2023-24 roadmap for OneNote on iPad. By leveraging deep user insights, competitive analysis, and agile design methodologies, we identified key pain points and innovative opportunities. This strategic initiative not only secured stakeholder funding but also delivered measurable outcomes—improving the app rating and driving significant user engagement.

Role‍
- Lead Designer & Strategist: Spearheaded a vision exercise over the course of one month, collaborating with a fellow designer and product manager to produce a comprehensive plan and roadmap for OneNote on iPad for the entire year.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Aligned with engineering, product, and Win32 teams to secure stakeholder buy-in and funding.
- Oversaw research (App Store feedback, user interviews, competitive analysis) and led iterative design sprints.
Impact
- Increased iPad App Store rating from 4.2 to 4.7.
- Boosted monthly active users by 20%, reaching 18.9M inking users.
- Secured substantial investment to implement a phased feature roadmap
UX Design and Prototype

Defining interactions
& Prototyping

Over a year of working on One Note, we developed numerous features. However, for brevity and confidentiality, only one example is detailed here.
Turning Insights into Action: Mapped user needs into selection, gesture and beautification prototypes
Developer Collaboration: Built quick prototypes with developers to validate feasibility and streamline user flows
Iterative Refinement: Gathered feedback, polished interactions, and enhanced speed and clarity.
Dashboard mockup
Feature example

Selection Gesture and
Ink beautification

An example of Ink Fundamentals
Going in depth of the feature and scaling it to entire One note
and other Microsoft Applications
Overcome messy handwriting through text conversion & custom fonts
Simpilified image insertion and background removal
Intuitive selection, resizing, rotation for effortless content arrangement
Ink to text user
research snapshots
we conducted reserch on 25+ user from various
backgrounds and nationalities like student,
working professional, illustrator, etc
Insight compilation
Defining the feature MVP: Ink to text
User's stylus handwriting is messy; AI clarifies and straightens it into crisp text
Organising notes manually consumes time, Ink cleanup ensures neat, well organised notes

Defining the next steps: Ink to text

An intermediary step between the MVP and the north star
North star

Defining the Vision for One Note

Collaborative Effort: Led the efforts with two other designers and a PM to shape One Note's vision
MVP definition & Testing: Transformed North star concepts into phased, user centric product roadmap
Scaled these features from iPad to entire one note application: Continued to refine both immediate releases and our long term strategic direction
iPhone mockup
Dashboard mockup
Dashboard mockup
Perspective from my manager and peers on our project journey
Source: Microsoft's internal feedback tool CONNECT
Read what my peers say about collaborating with me on the project