Designing VS Code’s UX for the Agentic Era | LIVE156
Joanna Oikawa explains how the VS Code design team is adapting the editor’s user experience for more agentic workflows, sharing concrete UX changes, the trade-offs behind them, and lessons learned from what didn’t work.
Overview
This session is a behind-the-scenes look at how the Visual Studio Code design team is evolving the editor for the “agentic era” through many small UX changes rather than a single large rewrite. The speakers discuss real examples, decision-making trade-offs, and how the team validates and iterates on design changes.
What the session covers
- How VS Code’s UX is being incrementally retooled for agentic workflows
- Examples of deliberate UX shifts and the trade-offs behind them
- How the team handles validation loops and accountability for design decisions
- How design decisions are made (including clarifying who makes final calls)
- How designers contribute directly to the product (including submitting PRs)
Notable segments (from the provided chapter list)
- Behind the scenes of UX work and prototypes
- Transition to a full-screen agent experience
- Clarifying who makes final design decisions
- “UI Power Hour” concept
- Designers actively contributing code and submitting PRs
- “Depth vs breadth” framing for expertise balance
- Balancing product design through complementary perspectives
- Validation loops and accountability
Resources
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMvnRYgB5Ac&t=80s
- https://aka.ms/VSCode/Release
- https://aka.ms/VSCode/Learn
- https://aka.ms/VSCode/DesignYT
Speakers
- Joanna Oikawa
- Burke Holland
Event context
This session is part of Microsoft Build 2026 (LIVE156).