Surfacing New Insights

What happens when you take a set of people who have never owned a tablet computer before and give them a new Surface 3 device?

TL;DR

I led a three-part longitudinal diary and contextual inquiry study to understand how everyday users lived with their 2-in-1 devices “in the wild.” The insights directly validated customer demand for a traditional clamshell form factor (informing early Surface Laptop development), clarified product-tier marketing, and identified key hardware care needs.

Project

Longitudinal foundational research for the Microsoft Surface hardware team to inform future device form factors and accessory designs

People

My role: UX Researcher, responsible for planning, execution, and reporting

Primary stakeholders: Design and PM Leads

Context & Problem

The Surface team had successfully established the 2-in-1 hybrid category, but we lacked deep qualitative visibility into how these devices actually lived “in the wild.” We needed to uncover the unvarnished truth about physical postures, accessory wear-and-tear, and environmental use cases to drive the next generation of hardware engineering and product positioning.

Approach

I designed a three-part longitudinal study tracking a diverse cohort (students, professionals, parents) over nearly a month. It started with an in-lab unboxing to capture first impressions, transitioned into a 3-week diary study to track organic daily usage, and culminated in an in-home contextual inquiry. Visiting their homes and dorms and getting a show-and-tell from the participants allowed me to directly observe physical interactions and creative hardware workarounds, like users balancing the open kickstand on top of their bent knees while lounging in bed.

Key Insights

• Everyone loved the Surface’s portability – thin and light!
• People used it to take notes in class, surf the web, watch Netflix and YouTube in bed, do PowerPoint presentations, and many other things both fun and productive.
• Some people really liked the look and feel but would have preferred a traditional laptop form factor.
• A few people needed more processing power for schoolwork. This study used Surface 3 devices (the lower-powered version), not the more powerful Surface Pro variant.
• People took their devices to class, to the park, and all sorts of places. They weren’t sure what to do if the fabric of the Type Cover got dirty. Could they clean it? With what?
• People “held” the Surface in creative ways, such as setting the open kickstand on top of their bent knees while lounging around, revealing unconventional ways the kickstand hinge could be stressed and wear over time.

Impact

Hardware Form Factor Validation: The qualitative data confirming the strong desire for a traditional clamshell directly validated the ongoing early development of the first-generation Surface Laptop, among other potential devices on the future roadmap.

Marketing & Packaging: Identified a need for clear box descriptions and marketing differentiation between the Surface and Surface Pro models to ensure users purchased the correct processing power for their needs.

Customer Experience: Highlighted the immediate need to include explicit cleaning and care instructions for the fabric keyboards, removing user anxiety and extending the hardware’s perceived lifespan.

NDAs are serious business. While I can’t share proprietary deliverables, real participant photos, or raw data, I’ve designed this portfolio to highlight the strategic thinking and impact of the work.