google • internship • 2022
A three-month qualitative study on Google's Web Stories, inside the Next Billion Users team. The goals and findings are under NDA, so this is about how I ran the research and what I learned from doing it.
The information presented is solely my experience and process. Project goals, questions, and final insights are protected under a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
my role
UX Research Intern. Owned planning the study, designing the interview guide, conducting user interviews, formulating insights and recommending design changes.
org
team
type
duration
context
A study on GenZ’s preferences for online media
Google's Next Billion Users team focuses on people who are about to come online for the first time. When it's someone's first time on the internet, the interface has to be careful and easy to make sense of, without assuming any prior habits.
A long-form wikipedia page turned into localised and visual format
Web Stories are one of NBU's efforts in that direction. They take long-form text content and turn it into short, visual content in localised languages, so it's easier to read and understand for someone new to the web. That was the product my study focused on.
deliverables
I ran the study end-to-end
I planned the study, wrote the interview guide, did the desk research to shape my hypotheses, ran 11 in-depth interviews, turned all of it into a narrative document and presented design recommendations to the product team.
Desk research synthesis document
Virtual interviews with 12 participants
reflections
What I learned from this project
1
Follow-up questions can make or break your study
The pilot was instrumental in allowing me to reassess my probing questions and structure them more effectively.
2
A good synthesis is not just for internal use
I learned the importance of narrative based writing. It made the document easier and fun to read
3
Work hard but don’t over-plan in delusion
I initially scheduled three 90-minute interviews each day, leaving little time to debrief. I learned to prioritize key goals and keep discussions focused.
4
Great work comes from diversity of feedback
Regular stakeholder feedback challenged assumptions, uncovered blind spots, and strengthened the final research outcomes.
Thank you for reading!
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