Jay Machalani has a vision for Windows 8. Frustrated by the inconsistencies of Microsoft’s touch-friendly operating system, Machalani has been putting together a plan over the last three months to fix and unite the disparate desktop and “Metro” interfaces. It turns out that the 20-year-old self-taught user-experience designer might be mocking up concepts that are similar to what Microsoft is preparing for the next major version of Windows. Recent reports suggest Microsoft is planning to bring back the Start menu, along with improvements to its traditional desktop mode to allow new Windows 8-style applications to “float” and run in separate windows. Machalani’s concepts — which were completed long before the recent rumors — imagine how that might work in reality.

Speaking to The Verge, Machalani enthusiastically explains he “left school to build a better way for students to work” as part of an upcoming collaborative platform currently in development. His work on a Windows 8 concept is a part-time hobby borne out of frustration. The basic concepts center on bringing back the traditional Start menu in a modern way with Live Tiles and easy access to settings in the desktop mode. “I’m not aiming to get anything out of it … this is really to voice some concerns that users have and to show Microsoft that there is a way for them to continue their strategy, but also respect the feedback from users.”