Seamless profile switching for work & personal use
Browser users often separate work and personal browsing by using different browsers. I designed a feature that automatically switches profiles in Edge, helping retain users for both work and personal use. I was tasked to implement this feature end-to-end, which involves creating multiple prototypes, collaborating with our researcher for UX studies and aligning on north star metrics with the feature crew.
Growth (first three months)
↑ 800K monthly users
Usage (first three months)
4.5 million profile switches
Role
Product Designer
Contributions
UX/UI, research, testing
Status
🚀 Shipped
Timeline
2023 (1 month)
Shipped outcome
Profile switching helps users easily move between work and personal profiles in the Edge browser based on the type of site that you’re navigating to.
Previous experience
The only way users can switch between browser profiles is by clicking their avatar and manually selecting the desired profile. This is not optimal, as frequent navigation between browsers and profiles accumulates over time, leading to a blurred and collapsed separation.
Business Goals
#1 Provide productivity value with a separate “work browser”
Drive customers who use Edge for work to upsell Edge for personal browsing
#2 A lightly managed personal browser
Allows users to access their favorite non-work related sites and services without compromising the security or compliance of the enterprise
#3 Enhance user focus with auto-switching feature
Automatically moves non-work sites to your personal browser and maintains contextual separation between user profiles
How does this work?
Edge browser will automatically switch between user profiles based on site classification, leveraging a predefined ruleset to ensure the appropriate context is applied for the type of site.
Iterations: notification flyouts
I explored these visual considerations when it comes to the profile switching notification, going from the more confident/transient UI to the less confident UI in order to hone in on a solution.
Research
To find out which browser switching experience is better for helping users automatically open certain websites in their desired browser profile (prototype 1 or 2), and to understand which scenarios users with multiple profiles would prefer.
Results: Split 50/50.
Design hypotheses
We believe giving in-context profile/browser switch mechanisms will help customers stay organized when using multiple profiles in both Personal and Work browsing scenarios.
Method
Moderated interviews
Prototype option 1
When users type the Target URL, they see the option “Switch to personal,” which opens the site in their personal profile.
Once the new window opens, Edge confirms the action with a message in the top left corner. Users can change their profile preference via a drop-down menu in the same notification card.
The identity control at the top left allows users to manage which profile opens specific websites.
The Edge notification is at the end of the URL bar and the drop-down menu label different. The label is "Choose how this site opens".
In this prototype, the users can also change their preferences by clicking on the icon located at the end of the URL bar. Since final results were split evenly, we moved forward with this direction because this pattern was most familiar with users.
Prototype option 2
Participants found the smart switch valuable for organizing personal activities, saving time, and separating personal tasks from work.
They preferred having an additional window for the other profile for better organization and differentiation.
Most (4 out of 6) agreed that automatically opening sites in specific profiles by default is convenient, as it avoids interrupting their current work.
Results
Design pivot: iterations based on user research
These changes were made after synthesizing the main qualitative feedback from research. The feedback highlighted unmet user needs which directly shaped the final design decisions of profile switching.
Reflections
This project highlighted how essential close collaboration and open dialogue are to building the right solution. Our initial approach was rooted in the goal of creating a seamless experience. But through usability testing and team discussions, we realized users felt confused and out of control when the system changed without clear feedback.
Pivoting to manual switching was a collective decision that balanced user needs with technical feasibility. It was a great example of how cross-functional collaboration, grounded in user research, leads to more intuitive and trustworthy design outcomes.
In the Press