How can we facilitate the discovery of
educational content on YouTube?
Google UX Design Internship
Duration: 3 months
Background
In the summer of 2019, I had the incredible opportunity to work at Google in San Bruno, CA on the YouTube Learning team. Given how many things I’ve learned on YouTube, ranging from calculus and Python to how to macramé a curtain and how to understand the needs of my struggling houseplants, I was excited to work on this team, which is responsible for helping users find and engage with relevant educational content.
While I cannot share the details of what I worked on, I can share a high-level overview of the project
The Process
project details
My project prompt was brief: re-design the landing page to help users find and re-engage with educational content. I was told to focus on a short-term, MVP design for desktop. Beyond that, I was grateful to be given complete ownership of my project.
00. Definition + Scope
My first step was to define and scope the project based on the product priorities, needs, resources, and timeline. I started by reviewing all prior work to understand the product’s evolution and vision. Next, I identified and met with all key internal stakeholders, which included people from UX, product management, engineering, business, and marketing. Through these meetings, not only was I able to build a foundation to partner with them on this project, but I was also able to gain insight into their priorities, constraints, and how this project relates to their work.
01. Research
Once I had a sense of the criteria for success and understanding of the product, I conducted an audit of other YouTube pages and of analogous spaces. This audit enabled me to identify common patterns and interactions that could shape YouTube learners’ mental models. It also enabled me to benchmark the page and gain inspiration. For the YouTube audit, I followed up by meeting with the lead designers on each page to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying design decisions and user research. I also completed a content audit of current YouTube Learning content and proposed a taxonomy to organize the content.
I also partnered with our UX researcher to review prior user research and conduct remote interviews with YouTube viewers to understand their expectations and needs for a YouTube Learning landing page. After completing the user research, we identified the key user journeys for the landing page.
02. Design Concepts
After synthesizing and analyzing the research, I worked with my UX design lead to create four design principles to guide my design brainstorm and exploration. I then produced 10 concepts that illustrated different design directions. I presented my research findings and concepts to my product team to gather feedback and determine next steps.
03. Design
Given the limited resources on my team, I decided to not only produce the MVP design but also indicate the future design. My MVP design leveraged components and patterns that either currently existed or were being built by other teams. Any new components I introduced were ones that were building blocks for the future design, some of which other teams expressed a need and interest for.
My final deliverables included high-fidelity mocks of the MVP design and future design, accessibility considerations, specs, and a roadmap.
04. Outcome
My designs not only successfully gained cross-functional alignment (in other words, all the internal stakeholders were aligned on the design), but also was approved by UX leadership.
Learnings
Interning at Google was like having a growth spurt; I learned a lot during my time, not only in terms of my design work but also in how to effectively partner with other members of my team and across the company. I also gained more experience in determining design strategy while paying attention to detail and delivering results and negotiating conflicting priorities between internal stakeholders and user groups.
There’s SO much more I can say about my time at Google, and more specifically YouTube, so please feel free to reach out to learn more! :)