Google Student Blog: Exploring Design @ Google

Exploring Design @ Google - Marc Hemeon

February 27, 2012

Introduction: Today’s post is the third in our series on Exploring Design @ Google, which highlights the work of the user experience (UX) team at Google. The user experience team is a multi-disciplinary team of designers and researchers who collaborate with engineering and product management to create innovative, usable great-looking products that people love to use. The mantra of the the team is: "Focus on the user and all else will follow." Each week, we have featured a different Googler on the team and talked to them about their role, their background and what they love about working for Google. For today’s post, we sat down for a few questions with Marc Hemeon, a user interface designer at YouTube. -- Ed.

What does user experience mean to you?Marc Hemeon:What is your role at YouTube?MH:How does your role fit into the larger team?MH:Tell us about a day in the life of a designer.MH:

Wake at 5:50am
I workout for about 1.5 hours, then cruise home, hang at breakfast with my amazing wife and 3 kiddies, then hop on the freeway for 45 minute commute. During my commute I look for patterns in nature to inspire my day, while listening to NPR.

8:30-8:45 Breakfast 2
I get to work around 8:30am or so and enjoy a delicious breakfast of cage free egg whites, salsa, avocado and cottage cheese coupled with a frothy beverage of Diet Coke.

8:45 - 9:00am Email
I cruise up to my ergonomic standing desk which can also adjust to a sitting desk for hardcore pixel pushing. I open email for about 5 minutes, and skim around looking for any super urgent stuff I need to attend to. I only check email 3 times a day and never at night or the weekends - this is something new I am trying in 2012 to achieve more balance.

9:00am - 11:45am Make Time
After email I open Photoshop or Illustrator or bust out a sketch pad. Somewhere in there I slap on some headphones and crank up some music and let the creative juices flow. During my “make time” I am usually creating high fidelity mocks along with pretty detailed flows that allow someone to click through and understand the UI and interaction I have in mind.

11:50 - Noon - Stand Up for Major Project
If it’s a Monday, I have a brief stand up meeting for one of my major projects. We literally stand up and talk about what we are working on that day and do a quick sync.

Noon - 12:30 Lunch
I then cruise down to lunch. I typically spend about 25 mins. at lunch, usually with other YouTubers or random YouTube celebrities like the Nyan Cat.

12:30 - 1:00 Snippets, Internet Surfing and Email
After lunch I cruise back up and do a little internet surfing, email etc. If it’s a Monday I write a quick hit list of all the stuff I did - my snippets - of the week prior along with links to all my mocks. I share these snippets with my close team members and other designers to keep them in the loop with the work I am doing.

1:00 - 1:15 Doodle Time
I will typically draw something once a day, whether its typography or an illustration.

1:15 - 6:00ish Make Time or Meeting Time
The afternoons are either devoted to meetings or more make time, or a mix of both. Throughout the day I will reach out to a product manager, engineer or other designer and have ad hoc five minute design busts to show what I am working on and to solicit some quick feedback, share ideas, etc. I may get up and go work at a couch or down in the cafe or in one of the massage chairs to mix things up a bit.

Do you ever get “designer’s block”? If so, how you get back in the groove of things?
MH:

How does a designer work with engineers?
MH:

Meet to talk about an idea (ideas originate from anyone)

Brainstorming around that idea in the form of whiteboard sessions along with healthy debate, and get to a general agreement around one solution

Mocks and prototype - In tandem, engineers will start building a skeleton prototype to prove out the idea while a designer will create some higher fidelity mocks.

The group meets back up, we run through the mocks and make adjustments and tweaks as needed. Rinse and repeat the mock/prototype process until the group is in agreement on what exactly we are building.

Design then works closely with the Front End engineers on implementation and design, sometimes providing rich html/css/js design prototypes to create a clean example of the UI and interaction.

We then roll out the solution internally and do a bunch of testing, then if all goes well we launch the feature 100%.

What is the most interesting project to date that you have worked on?
MH:
What was your path to Google?
MH:
What did you study in school to prepare you for work in user experience?
MH:
What do you love most about working for Google?
MH:
Posted by Hal Marz, University Programs Specialist

3 comments :

Anonymous said...: Wow, the game has changed with the announcement that Adobe is no longer supporting development for FLASH for mobile devices or TV…it is focusing on youtube html5 player and Adobe AIR apps instead….the news got around the game development community quickly. I think the market penetration of mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone, and iTouch from Apple being a merket leader who doesn’t support FLASH made a true impression on developers whose clients pages were losing views by this audience. Comsider Apple’s leadership history introducing CD ROM’s fiirst in computers, dropping the beige look of computers, introucing the iMAc, iTunes, Quicktime, and Jobs support of Blu Ray at Disney helped set standards in many industries…; February 28, 2012 at 2:46 AM
Lady Lifestyle said...: This is amazing! I'm a college student majoring in Graphic and Multimedia Design and I've always wanted to know what it would be like for a Designer to actually work for Google. And this article was by far very refreshing and informative to read for someone like myself. I'm inspired and even more motivated! Thank you Mr. Hemeon for your input!

-Juanita Summerville; March 7, 2012 at 9:56 PM
jenny said...: Agen Sbobet

Agen Maxbet

Casino Online

Judi Bola

Judi Online; April 9, 2020 at 1:39 AM

Student Blog

Exploring Design @ Google - Marc Hemeon

3 comments :

Labels

Archive

Feed