Microsoft today released a new Mac menu bar app to help users become more productive. My Workspace, a Microsoft Garage project gives users quick and convenient access to their Office 365 apps and features. Users can access their upcoming calendar events on an at-a-glance event bar. They can open recent and shared files and launch Office 365 apps in one place. It also allows them to access Office 365 account settings with ease.

Backstory of this project:

This Vancouver Garage intern team was challenged to add value to a person’s day using the Office 365 suite. So, the team did the most important step in designing a new project, they talked to their target users. After talking to busy people, the team narrowed down the main things that help a person stay organized throughout a busy day: people responded en masse that they were missing an at-a-glance view of their day and often lose track of shared files. My Workspace was born.

In the four months of building the app, the team continued testing and speaking with the people that they were designing it for. “There is nothing like this on the Mac platform for the Office 365 suite,” said Grace Lam, an intern who worked on this Garage project.

You can download it here for your Mac. It is important to note that My Workspace is the first Microsoft Garage project built for Mac.