Design & Research Internship

#AI Platforms #Azure Foundry Local

Role

UX Research | Product Design

Collaboration

PMs | TPMs | UX Engineers | UX Researchers | Software Engineers | Product Designers | Product Marketing Managers

Timeline

12 weeks (May 2025 ~ August 2025)

In the summer of 2025, I functioned as a Design & Research Intern on the AI Platforms team of Core AI at Microsoft. My main task was to conduct research & propose design improvements for Azure Foundry Local, a platform for users to interact with LLMs on their local machines without internet or cloud connection. At the end of my internship I was able to present my findings and recommendations to executives and stakeholders, in preparation for Microsoft Ignite 2025.


I also went beyond my expected tasks and took on extra design responsibilities for an internal AI Agent Building Platform including providing design system accessibility guidelines for multiple components, and providing interface design proposals.


I also shared my own resources for the integration of UX & AI, and my experiences of building my own LLM using a custom AI Platform with the team.



This project is under NDA.

If you're interested in learning more about it, feel free to contact me at qsmuseofficial@gmail.com!

Highlights

Over the course of 12 weeks, I took on both Design & Research tasks for 2 projects.
Upon finishing my internship, I have :

Led a design & user research program for Azure Foundry Local, influencing cloud-to-edge on-device developer experience scaled across 560 million devices in 6 months, in close partnership with PMs, Engineers, Marketers, and Researchers

  • Designed 5+ CLI prototypes for AI developer tools improving command navigation efficiency by 34% validated through A/B tests, optimizing local LLM workflows scaled across 1.4 billion global users

  • Delivered 30+ design & product recommendations synthesized through 15+ Azure developer interviews & usability tests, directly influencing product positioning for ISV alignment & local AI runtime business roadmap

  • Conducted competitive analysis on Local AI runtime product trends, directly influencing go-to-market differentiation for NPU-powered model deployment

Established WCAG Design Systems for 10+ components for Microsoft Foundry Agent Service Platform, improving inclusivity & reducing frictions in design-to-development workflows

Media

Azure Foundry Local
Microsoft Foundry Agents Service

Feedback

After presenting my research findings, recommendations, and design proposals, I gained positive reviews and feedback from my manager and stakeholders whom I have worked with over the internship.

The Team

The Computational Design Team of AI Platforms lead by John Maeda was the best team I have ever had the honor of working with. They were incredibly welcoming, humorous, and supportive throughout the internship allowing me to learn not just professional skills as a researcher & designer, but to be a team player in a cross-functional setting.

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