Google Assistant
Household Communication
Context
Google Assistant is an artificial intelligence-powered and multi-modal assistant that is on mobile, home devices and wearables with more than 500 million users.
Assistant Communication provides critical and unique values to Home devices and households, with the mission of being the best way to connect and to get things done.
My role
I joined Assistant in 2020 as a Lead Interaction Designer owning Household communication, which is the most differentiated opportunity in Comms 2021 roadmap.
I worked closely with cross-functional partners including Product Managers, Conversation Designers, Engineering Team, Copy writers, as well as provided design guidances for design agencies.
Platform
Android, iOS, Google Home Smart Displays & Speakers, Smart watch, Auto
Timeframe
2020 - 2021
Help the family connect & coordinate
I owned the end-to-end interaction design of 4 highly-prioritized product lines: Broadcast, Calling, Video Calling, Messaging in Household communication as the Lead Designer, and defined product roadmap and design strategy with cross-functional partners including 7 PMs and 7 Engineering teams. These areas are across +20 teams and +10 product areas at Google, including Nest, People, Google Home, Android wear, Auto, Google Photos, YouTube, Google Maps, Duo, Meet with 300+ XFNs.
Case study 1
Family Broadcast
Broadcast to families phones and Google home devices
Family broadcast is a lightweight communication channel for families to stay connected throughout the day no matter where people are.
Context
Families have distinct needs to communicate and coordinate daily activities with each other in and around home. Think about a typical day with your family, in the morning, you need to get everyone ready to school or work, during the day time, you want to know where is everyone? When and what for dinner? Currently there is no easy way for you to reach everyone immediately, especially when some of them are at home with less or no access to phones, e.g kids; some are outside of home, e.g. commuting
Strategy
Strategically, Family broadcast is Google’s 1st ambient messaging solution for families, which is lightweight, kids/seniors friendly and available on all surfaces, including mobile, Google smart displays/speakers, Auto and wearables. Users can send, receive, and reply with their own voice via either voice commend or touch. We believe this makes family conversations that much easier - helping busy parents coordinate their days, and helping kids reach their parents from home even without owning a phone.
My Role
Lead Interaction Designer
Collaborate with XFN stakeholders from 10 teams and 3 product areas
Launched time
May 2020 in the celebration of Mothers’ day
Platform
Android, iOS, Google Home Smart Displays & Speakers, Smart watch, Auto
Press Coverage
Case study 2
Targeted Broadcast
Broadcast to a home device
Users can send and receive broadcast messages to any Google Home devices, including Nest Smart Displays, Speakers and mini
My Role
Lead Interaction Designer
Led the interaction design on all Google Assistant enabled speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks in English speaking locales
Cooperated with cross-functional partners to successfully launch Broadcast Targeted
Collaborated with Marketing team on involving the feature in an influencer video on Youtube with 124K view
Platform
Mobile, Smart displays, Speakers
Multi-modal Interaction
Visual, Voice, Touch, Gesture
Launch Impact
Successfully launched in Oct 2020 with 15K SAI, +8% SAI and +3% DAU
(Data are modified for confidential reason)
Press coverage
Featured in the Back to School xPA marketing campaign for families
Theverge, CNET
“Google is also expanding the Broadcast feature, which allows you to blast a custom alert to all of the Nest speakers in your home. Now, you can specify which speakers or smart displays a Broadcast goes to, and that should prevent disturbing a sleeping child from the announcement.”
- Theverge
“Perhaps the most requested change in this batch of updates is the ability to broadcast to individual speakers. That's a useful upgrade for anyone who wants to send a reminder to everyone in the kitchen without waking up someone in a bedroom equipped with a speaker.”
- CNET
Want to learn more? Contact me now!
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