It's hard to believe I haven't posted here since 2012.
14 years ago.
wow...
In that time, I've seen the peak and ebb of corporate knowledge stores and portals.
IBM/Lotus Domino. Sharepoint. OpenText. Dropbox. Confluence. Teams/OneDrive. Sharepoint.
OneLake Catalog. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-overview
I've watched the "modern" list of intranet tools and front-line portals grow.
Simpplr, Worvivo, MangoApps, Staffbase, Unily, FirstUp, Igloo, Interact, LumApps, Yoobic, Beekeeper, Blink, Pebb io, eXo Platform, Haystack, Simple, Oak Engage, Axero, Humand.
And now back to Sharepoint, with it's "classic" and "modern" experiences.
SharePoint recently introduced their 'new SharePoint experience (preview)'
Awhile back I learned never to name something "new" as time is relative.
Semantic versioning or code names are better.
Hey Copilot, give me a better name.
A. Conceptual / Vision‑Driven Codenames
These communicate intent, not versioning.
| Theme | Codename | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery & clarity | SharePoint Lumen | Signals illumination, clarity, content discovery. |
| Publishing & creation | SharePoint Forge | Implies building, crafting, and producing content. |
| Modern architecture | SharePoint Horizon | Suggests a new frontier without implying finality. |
| AI‑first workflows | SharePoint Atlas | Conveys intelligence, mapping, and navigation. |
| Simplicity & focus | SharePoint Nova | Clean, modern, and future‑proof. |
Best fit: SharePoint Lumen — aligns with the new Discover/Publish/Build model and the simplified, AI‑supported architecture. It’s aspirational without being tied to a specific release.
A. Naming the Toggle
Avoid “new” (it ages instantly). Use mode‑based or experience‑based naming.
Recommended patterns:
Classic Mode / Lumen Mode
Legacy Experience / Modern Experience
SharePoint Standard / SharePoint Lumen
SharePoint (Classic) / SharePoint (Modern)
This avoids ambiguity and supports long‑term coexistence.
Copilot didn't take into account that Lumen is already in use. Naming things is hard!
https://lumendatabase.org/blog_entries/lumen-year-in-review-2025
Speaking of experiences, in 2026 there's a lot more to consider. From the Lumen traffic reported in the link above.
- Consider how a phablet or dual-screen display can be used.
- Consider glasses, augmented reality, virtual reality.
- Consider agent to agent experiences.
More on the new Sharepoint experience and a demo.
https://demos.microsoft.com/Microsoft/play/5873/sharepoint-at-25
My prediction is the next major web UX experience will be WASM and pixel-driven, targeted at any GPU hardware and using nanites, shaders, filters, immersive audio and generative AI experiences rather than HTML, CSS or JavaScript.
It might allow for styles and perspectives like Roblox, Fortnight, or Minecraft, Atari or Nintendo or Sega or Playstation. True gamification (or AI slop, take your pick!).
It might include perspectives such as '80s Lotus or '90s Informix.
Lately I've been liking the Commodore / Teletype aesthetic. Though UX wise that logo is pretty big.
Regardless of the UX, an intranet site of the near future will include safe sandboxes for Agents, Agent to Agent workflows and operators in the loop approvals. It will morph as needs change, content and knowledge changes, tasks, agents or audience changes.
It could morph in style and features while you're looking at it. There's no more moving cheese, agents are eating your cheese and spitting it out.
https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/sandboxing-agentic-ai-workflows-with-webassembly/
https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/practical-security-guidance-for-sandboxing-agentic-workflows-and-managing-execution-risk/
There's still some ways to go to get Silverlight and garbage-collected WASM .NET or Go apps into the browser. I'm sure this will accelerate over the course of 2026.
https://platform.uno/blog/the-state-of-webassembly-2025-2026/
https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/G3FRDA-beyond_javascript_wasm_gc_present_and_future/
https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/94420#issuecomment-3305321393
