Design foundations for agents

Building agent experiences that users trust requires more than visual polish. It requires a principled foundation—one that puts people first, accounts for the full range of users, and operates within clear ethical boundaries.

This section covers the core design foundations that apply to every agent you build.

Responsible AI

Every agent you build operates within Microsoft's Responsible AI framework. That framework means applying six core principles—fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability—across the entire agent lifecycle. As a designer, your decisions around tone, scope, and transparency directly reinforce or undermine the trust that Microsoft's platform-level safeguards are designed to protect.

Responsible AI for agent design

Accessibility and inclusion

AI has the potential to remove barriers for people with disabilities—but it can also create new ones if not designed with care. This section introduces Microsoft's inclusive design insights for AI and the accessibility best practices that apply to both the visual layer of your agent and how it communicates through prompts and responses.

Accessibility and inclusion for agent design

Human-centered design

A great agent experience is a complete interaction system, not a collection of isolated prompts. This section covers Fluent UI, which provides visual and behavioral consistency, the user experience focus models that help you scope the right level of AI presence in your interface, the three foundational principles that keep users in control, and the lifecycle design patterns that guide users from first run through error recovery.

Human-centered design for agents