Surface Duo & Neo
Reinventing the phone — from cardboard prototypes to custom hinges.
Custom hinge + networked phones to simulate dual-screen before hardware existed
Led product incubation for Microsoft's dual-screen Surface Duo and Neo devices — exploring what new experiences become possible when a phone unfolds into two screens. The work was scrappy, creative, and deeply human-centered.
How it works
Incubating Surface Duo meant questioning every assumption about how people use phones. We used cardboard cutouts to feel what different form factors would be like in-hand before a single line of code was written. We ran paint-dipping user research sessions — literally having people submerge their hands in paint, then hold cardboard mock-ups — to understand natural grip patterns and where thumbs naturally fall on a dual-screen device. We built custom hinges to tether two physical phones together and networked them to simulate a unified dual-screen device, running prototype experiences before the real hardware existed. We explored optimal camera placement and quantity through hardware mock-ups, asking questions like: how do you take a selfie on a device that folds? What happens to notifications when you have two screens? How does a keyboard feel across the hinge? The result was a product that pushed Microsoft into entirely new hardware territory — and 17+ patents worth of novel ideas along the way.