Project: Google Play Protect
Client: Google
Designer: Ryan Younger
Year: 2017
CHALLENGE: Design a management interface to simplify the management of harmful apps across enterprise Android devices.
RESULT: An intuitive dashboard that facilitates at-a-glance security visualisation and management.
Google Play Protect is software integrated into every Android device, making it the most widely deployed mobile threat protection service in the world. It secures 2 billion Android users, and scans and verifies more than 50 billion apps daily.
I planned and designed the Google Play Protect Admin Dashboard from the initial planning and facilitation of a ‘Google Ventures Design Sprint’ [1] workshop with stakeholders through to working with the UX researcher all the way through to the final research sessions with participants across a number of different countries. Selecting an approach to address the requirements of the project I chose ‘Lean UX’, a philosophy which mandates “a technique, born out of Toyota’s manufacturing model, that works in alignment with Agile development methods. It aims to reduce waste and provide value. Essentially, lean UX combines the solution-based approach of design thinking with the iteration methods which compound Agile.” [2]
Following the initial GV Design Sprint workshop I created an initial high level design using a low-fi tool (Balsamiq). Through each subsequent iteration of the design the fidelity increased as it was shared with both stakeholders (via Google’s internal ‘Gallery’ tool which allowed stakeholders to leave comments on the designs) as well as users, to acquire feedback and validation. This Lean UX process allowed fast iteration with external and internal validation at regular points.
Since the cycles within Lean UX are rapid it lends itself to an efficient process which lessens waste and provides a focus on producing a Minimum Viable Product or ‘MVP’, thusly: Create the minimum required product, research it with users and stakeholders, learn from this, then iterate until the product is at a point where it can be released in its initial form.
Employing this iterative method reduced both technical and design debt, increased the transfer of knowledge across teams, improved overall performance, and allowed the shipping of a user-centered product providing shared value across the client.
By extending the application of core Lean UX principles, bottlenecks such as bureaucracy and an over-reliance on deliverables and documentation was replaced with an efficient, iterative process.
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