Google User Experience

The Google User Experience team aims to create designs that are useful, fast, simple, engaging, innovative, universal, profitable, beautiful, trustworthy, and personable.Achieving a harmonious balance of these ten principles is a constantchallenge. A product that gets the balance right is "Googley" – andwill satisfy and delight people all over the world.

Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience

1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams.

The Google User Experience team works to discover people's actualneeds, including needs they can't always articulate. Armed with thatinformation, Google can create products that solve real-world problemsand spark the creativity of all kinds of people. Improving people'slives, not just easing step-by-step tasks, is our goal.

Above all, a well-designed Google product is useful in dailylife. It doesn't try to impress users with its whizbang technology orvisual style – though it might have both. It doesn't strong-arm people to use features they don't want – but it does provide a natural growth path for those who are interested. It doesn't intrude on people's lives – butit does open doors for users who want to explore the world'sinformation, work more quickly and creatively, and share ideas withtheir friends or the world.

2. Every millisecond counts.

Nothing is more valuable than people's time. Google pages loadquickly, thanks to slim code and carefully selected image files. Themost essential features and text are placed in the easiest-to-findlocations. Unnecessary clicks, typing, steps, and other actions areeliminated. Google products ask for information only once and includesmart defaults. Tasks are streamlined.

Speed is a boon to users. It is also a competitive advantage that Google doesn't sacrifice without good reason.

3. Simplicity is powerful.

Simplicity fuels many elements of good design, including ease ofuse, speed, visual appeal, and accessibility. But simplicity startswith the design of a product's fundamental functions. Google doesn'tset out to create feature-rich products; our best designs include onlythe features that people need to accomplish their goals. Ideally, evenproducts that require large feature sets and complex visual designsappear to be simple as well as powerful.

Google teams think twice before sacrificing simplicity in pursuitof a less important feature. Our hope is to evolve products in newdirections instead of just adding more features.

4. Engage beginners and attract experts.

Designing for many people doesn't mean designing for the lowestcommon denominator. The best Google designs appear quite simple on thesurface but include powerful features that are easily accessible tothose users who want them. Our intent is to invite beginners with agreat initial experience while also attracting power users whoseexcitement and expertise will draw others to the product.

A well-designed Google product lets new users jump in, offershelp when necessary, and ensures that users can make simple andintuitive use of the product's most valuable features. Progressivedisclosure of advanced features encourages people to expand their usageof the product. Whenever appropriate, Google offers smart features thatentice people with complex online lives – for instance, people who share data across several devices and computers, work online and off, and crave storage space.

5. Dare to innovate.

Design consistency builds a trusted foundation for Googleproducts, makes users comfortable, and speeds their work. But it is theelement of imagination that transforms designs from ho-hum todelightful.

Google encourages innovative, risk-taking designs whenever theyserve the needs of users. Our teams encourage new ideas to come out andplay. Instead of just matching the features of existing products,Google wants to change the game.

6. Design for the world.

The World Wide Web has opened all the resources of the Internetto people everywhere. For example, many users are exploring Googleproducts while strolling with a mobile device, not sitting at a deskwith a personal computer. Our goal is to design products that arecontextually relevant and available through the medium and methods thatmake sense to users. Google supports slower connections and olderbrowsers when possible, and Google allows people to choose how theyview information (screen size, font size) and how they enterinformation (smart query parsing). The User Experience team researchesthe fundamental differences in user experiences throughout the worldand works to design the right products for each audience, device, andculture. Simple translation, or "graceful degradation" of a featureset, isn't sufficient to meet people's needs.

Google is also committed to improving the accessibility of itsproducts. Our desire for simple and inclusive products, and Google'smission to make the world's information universally accessible, demandproducts that support assistive technologies and provide a useful andenjoyable experience for everyone, including those with physical andcognitive limitations.

7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.

Those Google products that make money strive to do so in a waythat is helpful to users. To reach that lofty goal, designers work withproduct teams to ensure that business considerations integrateseamlessly with the goals of users. Teams work to make sure ads arerelevant, useful, and clearly identifiable as ads. Google also takescare to protect the interests of advertisers and others who depend onGoogle for their livelihood.

Google never tries to increase revenue from a product if it wouldmean reducing the number of Google users in the future. If a profitabledesign doesn't please users, it's time to go back to the drawing board.Not every product has to make money, and none should be bad forbusiness.

8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.

If people looked at a Google product and said "Wow, that'sbeautiful!" the User Experience team would cheer. A positive firstimpression makes users comfortable, assures them that the product isreliable and professional, and encourages people to make the producttheir own.

A minimalist aesthetic makes sense for most Google productsbecause a clean, clutter-free design loads quickly and doesn't distractusers from their goals. Visually appealing images, color, and fonts arebalanced against the needs for speed, scannable text, and easynavigation. Still, "simple elegance" is not the best fit for everyproduct. Audience and cultural context matter. A Google product'svisual design should please its users and improve usability for them.

9. Be worthy of people's trust.

Good design can go a long way to earn the trust of the people whouse Google products. Establishing Google's reliability starts with thebasics – for example, making sure theinterface is efficient and professional, actions are easily reversed,ads are clearly identified, terminology is consistent, and users arenever unhappily surprised. In addition, Google products open themselvesto the world by including links to competitors and encouraging usercontributions such as community maps or iGoogle gadgets.

A greater challenge is to make sure that Google demonstratesrespect for users' right to own and control their own data. Google istransparent about how it uses information and never shares data outsideGoogle without a user's explicit consent. Our products warn users aboutsuch dangers as insecure connections, different privacy policies onother websites, actions that may make users vulnerable to spam, or thepossibility that data shared outside Google may be stored elsewhere.Google is reassuring but truthful about data sharing so that users canmake informed choices. The larger Google becomes, the more essential itis to live up to our "Don't be evil" motto.

10. Add a human touch.

Google includes a wide range of personalities, and our designshave personality, too. Text and design elements are friendly, quirky,and smart – and not boring, close-minded, orarrogant. Google text talks directly to people and offers the samepractical, informal assistance that anyone would offer to a neighborwho asked a question. And Google doesn't let fun or personalityinterfere with other elements of a design, especially when people'slivelihood, or their ability to find vital information, is at stake.

Google doesn't know everything, and no design is perfect. Ourproducts ask for feedback, and Google acts on that feedback. Whenpracticing these design principles, the Google User Experience teamseeks the best possible balance in the time available for each product.Then the cycle of iteration, innovation, and improvement continues.