Before you design an interface, you have to decide where it will live. This topic surveys the four primary platforms used in this course — Android, iOS, Windows, and Web — and then widens the view to additional platforms you may encounter in practice, such as macOS, Linux, wearables, smart TVs, automotive displays, and embedded or kiosk systems. Each platform brings its own screen sizes, input methods, interaction conventions, distribution channels, and user expectations, and those differences drive real design decisions.
It also helps to think in categories rather than product names. Mobile platforms assume touch, small screens, interruptions, and on-the-go use. Desktop platforms assume keyboard and mouse, larger screens, and longer focused sessions. Web platforms assume a browser, variable screen sizes, and near-universal reach at the cost of some device integration. Recognizing which category your project falls into is the first step toward justifying a platform choice in your scope document.
The videos below are practical tours of widely used platform ecosystems. As you watch, pay less attention to the specific button clicks and more to the platform-level questions: What device and input method is this software designed for? Does it run in a browser, as an installed desktop application, as a mobile app, or as all three? How does the interface change across those versions, and what does that suggest about the constraints a designer must respect on each platform?
Kevin Stratvert walks through the applications included in Microsoft 365, covering what each one is for and how they relate to each other, from Teams and Outlook to collaboration tools like Yammer. Based on the title and description, the video is an orientation to a large ecosystem rather than a deep tutorial on any single app. Expect to see tools that exist simultaneously as desktop programs, web apps, and mobile apps.
It is a clear, well-produced tour of a major vendor ecosystem that spans desktop, web, and mobile, which makes it a useful concrete example when comparing platform categories and the Windows platform in particular.
This beginner tutorial introduces Microsoft Power Apps, a low-code environment for building business applications. It is likely to show how an app is assembled, configured, and then made available to users across devices without writing traditional platform-specific code. Watch for how the same app is intended to be consumed on a phone and in a browser.
Stratvert is a widely followed, accurate tutorial producer, and the video illustrates the cross-platform build-once/run-anywhere idea that is central to discussing platform selection trade-offs.
A step-by-step beginner tutorial on Google Drive, covering file storage and backup, accessing files from different devices, and sharing and collaborating with others. The focus is on a service delivered primarily through the browser with companion apps on other devices. It demonstrates how web-first products handle access, sync, and sharing.
It gives you a concrete, familiar example of the Web platform category and shows why browser-based delivery is often chosen for reach and collaboration, directly supporting the mobile/desktop/web comparison.
Together these videos give you observable examples of software delivered on desktop, web, and mobile, which is the raw material for comparing platforms against HCI constraints and user needs (MO1). Seeing the same vendor ship a browser-based service, an installed suite, and a low-code cross-platform builder makes the trade-offs of each delivery model concrete, so you can argue for a platform choice against your own project requirements rather than by habit (MO2). As you watch, note the constraints and capabilities each platform imposes — those notes feed directly into the objectives, constraints, and success criteria sections of your project scope document (MO3).
These videos were chosen from YouTube on October 3, 2026. Each has captions; the player turns them on. Videos on YouTube can be changed or removed — if one no longer plays, tell your instructor. If a player does not appear, use its Watch on YouTube link.