The Secret Sauce Behind Google's Products w/ Head of UX Irene Au

in by Dmitry 5 comments

We are all slaves to Google. We use their tools everyday. They are an innovative company on a large scale with a famously different way of coming up with products and then building them. So what is the secret sauce behind their process? Can we learn from them and employ the same practices?

Next Friday, December 17th at noon, Irene Au, Head of User Experience at Google, will get on her soapbox to share with us how her teams (which work on all Google properties) cook up products from idea to launch. In particular she'll discuss:

  • What does User Experience mean when it comes to Google products?
  • What is the process of creating a product from brainstorming to launch?
  • How does improv play a role in Google's brainstorming and design process?
  • How do you identify opportunities in the brainstorm session?
  • How do you walk away with tangible solution from a brainstorm session?

About Irene: Prior to Google Irene was the VP of User Experience at Yahoo where she established and managed a 150 person User Experience and Design team responsible for interaction, interface, and visual design for Yahoo.com products and services. Prior to Yahoo Irene worked as an Interaction Designer at Netscape where she designed Netscape Communicator 4.x products, including the browser, mail/news client, and web site editor.

RSVP for Irene Au's ZURBsoapbox

Where?
ZURB HQ
55 N. 3rd Street, Suite 100a
Campbell, CA 95008
When?

Friday, December 17th, 2010
from 12:00-1:00pm PST

RSVP Today »

I know you can't wait for this event, we can't either! Here is a quick teaser of the types of things Irene will delve into during the talk.

5 comments

Dmitry (ZURB) says

This is how I thought Google works:

"Engineers dictate what should/could be done technologically speaking. They handed the ideas over to designers who are charged with making sense of it all. The disconnect often resulted in poor products, annoyed engineers and frustrated designers."
-Bloomberg

But turns out engineers "own" the design as well:

"Instead, engineers are as invested in the design as in the functionality. As Rakowsi put it: “It’s an integrated approach where engineers are responsible from start to finish.”
-Bloomberg


Really curious to ask Irene how designers work with engineers at Google? What do designers produce? Any crazy nerd fights ever break out?


Jackie Coughlan says

Hi Irene,

I guess these might be touchy questions but naturally I am curious. I am wondering about how Google is coping with the upsurge of social media and incorporating all this into its products. I would like to know what was learned from the backlash to Google Buzz, why that happened as it did, and whether & how that has affected design decisions for products going forward? Also, my current favorite browser is Rockmelt, which uses Chromium but builds the social networking on top- how does Google feel about these outside applications that use Google as a base for interfacing with social media?

Jackie


B. Moore says

So will you ever stream one of these live?

Are you going to record and post the video?


Bryan (ZURB) says

@B.Moore We post the podcast here ZURBsoapbox.com