[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- I'll tell people, I work at Google.

And they go, what do you work on?

I design Search.

And they kind of pause for a second

and they're like, what is there to design?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- Oh, I know.

It's cat.

[BEEP]

- Hi.

How can I help?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[END PLAYBACK]

BRENDA FOGG: Hello, everybody.

I'm Brenda Fogg.

I work in the Creative Lab, which

is sort of a multi-disciplinary creative group within Google

that often collaborates with other teams

across the company on product or technology experiments.

And sometimes, finding new ways to talk about some

of the innovative work that's going on inside of Google.

And at some point over the years,

I've worked with each of our panelists

on some of those projects that you probably saw on the video

just now.

So we're going to talk a little bit about some things

that you may have seen.

A little bit about design at Google

and what that means as sort of a fundamental framework

and connective tissue between the things that Google makes

and making them as useful and accessible to as many people as

possible.

So let's start with some introductions.

We have Doug Eck right here to my left,

who leads a project called Magenta,

which is all about exploring machine learning

and creativity.

We have Isabelle Olsson, who's responsible for the design

of the Google Home and wearables and hardware.

And over there is Ryan Germick, Principal Designer,

who also is known as the Doodle guy.

And has been quite involved in the Google Assistant.

And generally, just in the business

of delighting users everywhere.

So let's start by letting everybody

talk a little bit about what you do at Google.

And we'll start with Doug, because you're

sitting next to me.

You head up this project called Magenta.

For anybody who doesn't know exactly what that is,

maybe you can talk a little bit about that.

And maybe touch on what inspired the group

and the focus of the team.

DOUGLAS ECK: OK, sure.

So yeah, I lead a project called Magenta.

The M-A-G in Magenta stands for Music and Art Generation.

And we started by trying to understand the capacity

to use AI, specifically machine learning,

to generate music and art.

And it took us about a month to realize that that's

asking the wrong question.

Because if all you're doing is trying

to generate music and art, then you

just keep pushing this button and the machine learning

keeps making music and art for you.

And it gets boring fast.

So we pivoted very quickly to talking about,

how can we use machine learning to enable artists and enable

musicians to make something new?

To make something different?

So it's sitting on the same idea of technology and art

interacting with one another in a virtuous way,

starting with cave drawings and moving forward

through the film camera and other bits of technology.

So yeah, I'm about AI and art and music.

BRENDA FOGG: So you're not necessarily

trying to replace creativity or duplicate creativity,

but more providing the tools to enable people to do that?

DOUGLAS ECK: Yeah.

And I think it's not just because that's

what we choose to focus on.

I think creativity is fundamentally human.

And it's about communication.

So if we take the communication loop out,

we can imagine in some analytical way, a computer

generating new things.

But what makes creativity work is how we respond to it

and how we then feedback in to that process.

So I think it's very much a societal communicative act.

BRENDA FOGG: And that idea of creating new things,

like maybe some things that weren't

necessarily possible before.

That weren't humanly possible to create.

So there's an-- I don't know if you want to talk about this,

but this example that was shown in the lead-up into the keynote

yesterday.

The NSynth Project, which is one of those things

that can sort of augment what human creativity can do.

You want to touch on that?

DOUGLAS ECK: Yeah, sure.

For NSynth and the following hardware device,

NSynth Super, you may have seen was

played on stage before the keynote and discussed there.

I think the main idea there is, can we

use machine learning to allow us to generate new sounds?

And sounds that are musically meaningful to us?

And one thing to point out is that we already

have ways to do that.

There's a bunch of great software.

I have a piano at my house, so I can-- and a guitar.

There are lots of ways to make sounds.

What we hope we can get is some kind

of expressive edge with AI.

Something that we can do with these models.

A kind of intuitiveness or a kind of new kind

of mobility artistically by having a new tool.

And the one thing I would say, I don't

want to take up too much time because there's

a lot of other great people here on stage.

But I really like to think about the film camera.

The film camera was initially not

treated as an artistic device.

It was treated as something to capture reality.

And it was transformed into an artistic device

by artists, by photographers.

And our hope on Magenta is that we

find the right artists and the right musicians

to take what we're doing and turn it

into something creative.

BRENDA FOGG: So turning something

into creative, Isabelle.

When you're designing a product, the Home for example,

you're trying to create something that appeals

to everyone through its design.

But everybody's different, right?

So these are physical products that share a physical space

with the people that use them.

And like sometimes, you have to cohabitate.

So talk a little bit about how you approach that problem.

ISABELLE OLSSON: Yeah.

I mean, I think I have the utmost respect

for people's homes.

And like you said, they're all different.

And I think next to your body, your home

is your most intimate space.

And it's the place for you share with your loved

ones and your family.

So to enter that space with our products,

we have to be super-thoughtful about what we do there.

And I think for us, the most important thing

is to be inspired by the context in which our products live in.

So when we were designing Google Home Mini for example,

the goal was to design an Assistant for every room.

And that means your bedside table.

And your bedside table, that's where you put devices

that help you see better.

Or like, a book that helps you dream.

So that space is just so special.

We wanted to create something that was beautiful,

that fit into the home, and didn't take up

too much attention, and kind of faded a little bit

into the background.

BRENDA FOGG: And you're also responsible for CMF

at Google, which is Color Material Finish, right?

ISABELLE OLSSON: Yes.

BRENDA FOGG: And I've heard this story about testing,

like 150 different versions of color palettes for the Mini.

Is that right?

ISABELLE OLSSON: Yeah.

I mean, I think for us, developing the color palette

for the Google family of products

and individual products is a very--

it's a combination of art and science, I would say.

And we start usually two to three years

before the products come out.

So we have to do a lot of anticipation

of where society is going, where trends are going.

And take all of those kind of inputs

into account to make sure that when we release a product,

it makes sense to people.

In addition to that, of course when you design for the home,

you have to think about the fact that there is going to be light

hitting the product.

How does it stand the test of time?

We want to make sure the products look beautiful

for a long time.

So we have to go through a lot of iteration to get it right.

And then also, especially as we're

developing fabrics for example, depending on where you put it,

it takes different--

it looks different in different lighting conditions.

So when we designed Mini, we went through,

I think 150 iterations of just the gray color.

But it was a lot of fun.

And it was about finding that right balance with,

what is too light?

What's too dark?

And the other day, I got this lovely email by someone

on the team who had picked out his couch to match Google Home

Max.

So I took that as a giant compliment

because we were trying to do it the other way around.

But that was a beautiful story.

BRENDA FOGG: What is the intersection of the intuition

that you use as a designer when you approach

these kinds of problems with the sort of iterative testing?

And sort of the scientific materials examination?

ISABELLE OLSSON: Yeah, it's a hodgepodge.

The process is not linear.

It's pretty messy, usually.

But we have fun with it.

I think the key is gather as much input as possible,

and then digest it.

And then, come up with prototypes and ways

of relating to how this will fit into people's homes.

So even right next to my desk, I have a big bookshelf

that we place random objects from all

over the world for inspiration.

But also, to kind of put our stuff there quickly

to see, how does it feel?

And how does it feel over time?

Because it's not only about creating something

that you are first attracted to, but it

has to be things that you can live with for a long time.

BRENDA FOGG: So Ryan, you lead the Google Doodles team.

And this team is unique in a lot of ways.

Namely, one of them is that you regularly and willfully break

the brand rules.

RYAN GERMICK: Gleefully, yeah.

BRENDA FOGG: Gleefully for Google.

In fact, on a daily basis, many, many times.

And that's unusual because it's the core of the brand.

And that's something that seems to keep working and working

and working over the years.

So talk a little bit about why you

think it's important to have the ability to kind

of just mess with it.

RYAN GERMICK: Sure.

I mean, Google's mission is to organize the world's

information and make it universally

accessible and useful.

And I believe in that mission.

I think it's a very powerful, good thing to do for the world.

And we hone in on the idea of making

things accessible by creating an emotional connection

with users.

And sometimes, like mucking up the standards.

That's like collateral damage for people

getting a positive charge and learning something new