Improving Comprehension through Intuitive Actions

Improving comprehension through intuitive actionsIllustration by Mingguo Li, Next Billion Users illustratorI wrote this story with Susanna Zaraysky, a Content Strategist on the Material Design team.“You are not your user” is a common UX mantra and one to keep in mind when designing for maximum user understanding. Starting with the basics: Your users...

Feb 2021

6 Ways to Cultivate Your UX Design Career

Over the past year, I have been coaching a few friends on their job searches and helping them get started in the user experience design field. Through our conversations, I found myself looking back at when I started at Google 10 years ago as a visual designer for Google Chrome and Google Maps, and how I transitioned into my current role as a senior...

Oct 2020

Teaching a bell to ring when your pancakes are ready

Teaching a bell to ring when your pancakes are readyExperimenting with putting teachable technology in everyday objects.Imagine, for a second, that you had a magic bell that you could teach when you wanted it to ring. When would you want it to ring? I have pretty bad posture, so I’d want it to ring every time I slouched, a reminder to sit up straight....

Oct 2020

Writing for global audiences

Draft clear content so users know how to take actionIllustration by Alexa Ong, Next Billion Users illustratorI wrote this story with assistance from Luke Easterwood, LeAnn Quasthoff, Jessica Caimi, and Erik Ninomiya, UX writers who have focused on the needs of the Next Billion Users.John Steinbeck said that “Poetry is the mathematics of writing and...

Oct 2020

Nurture trust through cost transparency

Design for trust by giving users more control over their data usageIllustration by Taylor Herr, Next Billion Users visual designerI wrote this story with Ramprakash Ravichandran, an interaction designer on the Next Billion Users team, and Ted McCarthy, a user experience researcher on internet access projects.Internet access and cost challenges are common...

Sep 2020

The Making of Maker Experience

When teams feel great, they make great products. So we built a team dedicated to the experience of making.At Google, we want our products to exceed expectations, attain our goals, and improve the lives of our global users. To make that happen, the teams that make them have to be exceptionally well-prepared and well-connected.In other words, if we want...

Sep 2020

Connect, No Matter the Speed

Design for slow, intermittent, and offline connectivity, to reduce user frustrationIllustration by Kai Yee Tay, Next Billion Users illustratorI wrote this story with Susanna Zaraysky, a Content Strategist on the Material Design team.With many working from home around the world, more people are consuming high bandwidth content through streaming videos,...

Aug 2020

Learnings from a Junior Designer at Google

Frameworks and lessons from my second yearI joined the YouTube Ads Video Creation team at Google two years ago as my first gig out of grad school. Getting into Google was a dream come true, but it wasn’t easy. It took a lot of deliberate practice and luck.Time flies. I’m now passing the peak of “Mount Stupid” where I constantly doubted myself and climbing...

Aug 2020

Material Components for Android 1.2.0 is now available

Material motion system, Sliders, ShapeableImageView, and moreWe’re excited to announce the release of Material Components for Android (MDC-Android) 1.2.0! A host of exciting new features have been added along with many bug fixes and accessibility improvements. Get the rundown below.Be sure to check out the release notes. If you’re using MDC for the...

Aug 2020

A Collaborative Approach to Shaping Successful UX Critique Practices

How one team at Google established a sustainable crit cultureDesign critiques create space to improve designs and allow participants to gain confidence presenting work and articulating design rationales. Despite being an undeniably useful ritual, often they fail because the process stays the same while the team and project evolve.At Google Health, we’ve...

Jul 2020