Microsoft designers discuss developing for the Surface Duo

The Surface Duo’s form factor provides a unique opportunity for designers.

What you need to know

• Microsoft’s head of designs and lead of the design team for Office discuss developer experiences for the Surface Duo in a new post.
• Friedman explains that the Surface Duo’s form factor provides a unique opportunity for development.

Microsoft’s Surface Duo has a unique form factor that creates new ways for people to interact with apps. In a blog post, Jon Friedman, head of Microsoft designs, shares how designing for the Surface Duo created an opportunity to create for a new category of device.

“For a designer, such an opportunity is rare and exciting. It’s like discovering a new room in the house you’ve lived in for decades” says Friedman in the post. The dual-screen nature of the Surface Duo led Microsoft figuring out how to best take advantage of the larger and more versatile space.

The bulk of the post is a question and answer session between Friedman and Deepak Menon. Menon leads the design team for the Office app.

Menon explains in one response that to him, the Surface Duo “Isn’t just the “smartphone experience” with two screens. It’s not just a “folded tablet.” It’s something new, with experiences that are made possible because of the seam, not in spite of it.”

Menon also goes over how the increased screen real estate of the Surface Duo allows people to be more productive and more creative. He also covers how Microsoft views the seam between the Duo’s screens “as an opportunity, not a constraint” because it reduces people’s cognitive burden.

You can read through all of Friedman and Deepak’s interview to gain greater insight into the development of the Surface Duo.

Preorders Live

Microsoft Surface Duo

From $1,400 at Microsoft
From $1,400 at Best Buy

Two screens are better than one.

Microsoft delves into the future of foldables with an ambitious dual-screen device, featuring two ultra-thin 5.6-inch AMOLED displays bound by a 360-degree hinge. This pocketable inking-enabled Android smartphone marks the latest in the Surface lineup, geared for mobile productivity.