I’ve had the pleasure of contracting with some of the most talented and inspiring people in the world, collaborating on some of the most widely viewed products in tech to help turn user feedback into more intuitive and useful UI designs.
The "New" button on the top left was a major addition and would cause the entire header to change. Being such a large piece of software used by so many all over the world it was important to incorporate the changes in a way that the experience remained the same.
MAIN PROBLEMS.
Minor Changes
DRIVE REQUIRED SMALL CHANGES
The designs created for the New button on drive, including its size and spacing made it easy for engineers to make the changes without having to completely rebuild the top section of Drive.
EASY ON LANGUAGES
The approvals design kept the possible lengths of names and text in mind, as well as reading from left to right, or right to left. With a focus on all the users, approvals works seamlessly across many cultures.
EASY INTEGRATION
Approvals and the New button was added simply and made sense to users immediately, with few questions and an excitement to start using the new feature at their organization.
For Approvals, this would be a brand new feature for drive, and would need to be incorporated in other parts of Google without being confusing, and would need to maintain the ease of use and minimal branding Google has always maintained.
New Feature
DRIVE.
The team decided to put more emphasis on the New button, as it would carry more responsibility from this redesign out. I was charged with adjusting the top header of Google Drive to accommodate for the new space and interactions, while keeping the existing layout and icons familiar.
INITIAL
RESULTS.
People all over the world use Google products both on laptops, desktops, and phones. Designing for all these devices and all languages would require the design to be fluid and functional for all forms.
Use in all languages
CONCLUSION.
The most rewarding experience in this business is creating products and experiences that enhance and enrich the lives of so many people on a daily basis. This happens every day at Google with a team of passionate people, it’s a new experience every time I walk through the door.
MORE
STUDIES.
SOLUTION
FOCUS ON THE DOC AND STATUS
I wanted to make sure Approvals fit into the document layout clearly without taking over. A timeline would be added and will help with clarity, but the document is the focus and I wanted to keep it that way.
SOLUTION
FAMILIAR LAYOUT
Adding the approvals cards to Drive would need to be seamless and maintain the brand look and feel. I went with a minimal design that uses some design elements that are similar to other Google features, and incorporated the material design feature that Google was so famous for.
GOOGLE
APPROVALS.
The ability to approve documents and other pieces of user content was a recent feature added to Google Drive, this was our solution for clearly outlining the process, who was involved, keeping track of dates and times, and notification.
SOLUTION
CLEAR TIMELINE
Through the steps of approvals, there would be comments and steps of approvals, requests for changes and requirements for who would actually need to be doing the approving. I used existing styles and icons to make it clear where in the stage of the approvals a user would be while reviewing.
