Case Study: Google Sleep Ecosystem
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Introduction
As part of ustwo’s multi-year, multi-project engagement with Google, our team had the opportunity to explore what the future of Sleep Tracking could look like as part of Google’s product offering across Wear OS and Google Fit.
Context
ustwo and Google began working together in 2014, after Google approached ustwo to create watch faces for its forthcoming line of smartwatches and new wearable operating system (Wear OS). This partnership grew and flourished and ustwo’s watch faces became iconic across the platform.
After joining the team in 2017, I made an observation that the predominant use case for smart watches had begun to evolve. As the industry and technology matured, the use case for smartwatches appeared to be shifting from being fashion-forward to utility-forward. The entrance of the Apple Watch into the market helped speed up this transition.
It struck me that ustwo was well poised to help Google navigate the murky waters of product market fit for Wear OS given our considerable experience as a company working with frontier technology. I suggested that ustwo could provide more value to Google by offering a fresh and external strategic point of view on the platform as a whole versus working exclusively on watch faces.
Google agreed with our suggestion and embraced it. This approach transformed us into a ‘Special Ops’ team of sorts for Google. We were often deployed to explore the solution space for forthcoming products and features where there was scant research or understanding of end users. Our strength as a team derived from being able to do our own research and analysis, synthesize it, come up with concepts, prototype and build them at high levels of fidelity without (much!) of the limiting red tape of the organization. And we were scrappy, very scrappy.
Project Overview
Client: Google
Duration: April — September 2019 (4 months)
The team consisted of the following;
- David Fisher (Design Lead) <— — — that’s me!
- Senior Interaction Designer (ustwo)
- Delivery Lead (ustwo)
- Engineering Lead (ustwo)
- QA Engineer (ustwo)
- Product Manager (Google) ← — — Main Client/Decision Maker
- Design Lead (Google)
- UX Researcher (Google)
The Brief
Between 2017 and 2019, we helped Google design, build and launch Tiles.(see above). As a continuation of that work, we were asked to consider what kind of Tile experience would be complimentary to the newly launched Sleep Tracking features found on the Google Fit app.
After an initial brainstorm with the team, we came back to Google and mentioned that confining Sleep Tracking to just Wear OS/Google Fit could be limiting, and that it would be worth broadening the scope of the brief to understand what other potential opportunities existed across Google’s portfolio of products and services.
We agreed that we would investigate what a Sleep Tracking tile might look like, but in addition we would also seek opportunities to help Wear OS/Google Fit users not only identify issues with their sleep routines, but also also cultivate better habits over time.
Based on our brief, we spent some time articulating the brief in the format of “How might we” questions to help kick start our creative process;
- How might we help users understand their sleep via a Tile experience? What functions would it perform? When would it perform them and in what context?
- How might Google leverage its presence in individual’s lives and homes to provide a more holistic sleep experience (e.g. not just on the watch)?
- How might Google help users understand the concept of sleep hygiene and frame it in terms that are relatable?
- How might Google present sleep tracking information in a way that could lead to better sleeping habits/routines?
Process
- Our process started with a brainstorming workshop where we focused on generating divergent, big picture ideas, unrestricted by constraints or timelines. Once we had established a wide range of potential avenues to explore, we worked backwards and converge on ideas that are feasible, practical and provide high value for users.
- This process relied on our team coming up with ideas that drew from our respective experiences and research that was made available to us by UX research teams as well as our own research efforts.
- Once we’d identified a wide range of ideas, we would rank them by how well they might address our “How might we” questions identified goals in the brief.
- After ranking our ideas, we sketched on the whiteboard. We also discussed how they might work and how they might fit into a future product roadmap. This stage served as a ‘refinement’ step where we could nix ideas that weren’t particularly feasible or appropriate, but also served as a useful narrative tool to explain our rationale for how our concepts would ladder up to our future vision.
- Based on these whiteboard sessions, we then formalized our ideas using our suite of design tools. We undertook this step using a variety of techniques, depending on the level of complexity and the intended audience of the work. We primarily created flow diagrams for articulating complex processes, medium-fidelity mockups to convey UI, and prototypes to convey micro interactions or other functionality.
- We then shared our work with the wider team to solicit feedback, before sharing with our client, who would also provide feedback.
- As part of our feedback process, we often had to create different artifacts (see above) in order to be able to share effectively with our client. Due to both geographic and time zone differences, we worked remotely and asynchronously.
- This asynchronous cadence of work created a need to be particularly clear and concise with how we communicated our work. This led to the creation of a ‘running deck’ which was a Google Slides document where we would upload our most current work, and provide our rationale and thought process, so that it could be consumed by our clients and stakeholders in a timely manner prior to our weekly progress call.
- As part of our role within Google, we were responsible for bringing our ideas to relevant stakeholders. This included working with Design/ UX Research /Data Science and Engineering teams, who would all be included in the distribution of our running decks, and be invited to progress calls where appropriate.
- After receiving feedback, we would reiterate on our ideas until our design was mature enough to begin validating through prototypes (known as “dogfooding” or “eating your own dog food” within Google — I know it’s weird but what can you do?) or in some instances, be put through usability testing (run internally by Google UX research teams).
- After validating the work, we would gather feedback/bug reports and iterate our design process to address any outstanding issues.
- If things went well, we would then work with our own or Google’s engineering teams to begin working on production code.
- More often than not, our work would be slotted into the pipeline to begin engineering effort at some point in the future, as engineering resources were very tightly allocated on our teams.
- In situations where we did not produce any code, we would work with our internal counterparts at Google to create a seamless handoff of design files/assets for Google designers to maintain/iterate on in future.
- Part of our handover work included creating ‘Summary Decks’ which aimed to boil down why the work was undertaken, any corroborating research, the rationale behind decisions made and the outcomes produced. These summary decks served two purposes — to help bring Google stakeholders up to speed, but also to create internal buy-in across the organization.
The Work
This particular project yielded 3 main design concepts;
- A future UX vision of an integrated ‘Sleep Ecosystem’ powered by Google
- An AR-based diagnostic/education tool to help users learn about Sleep Hygiene
- Concepts for a Sleep Tile for Wear OS, as well as improvements to Google Fit’s Sleep Tracking features
Concept 1: Integrated Google Sleep Ecosystem (future)
Our UX vision of Google Fit’s digital Sleep experiences are predicated around the concept of a Sleep Ecosystem.
The Sleep Ecosystem is composed of all the physical, digital & environmental components that form and play a role in an individual’s sleep routine — focusing mainly around the bedroom.
The image shown here calls out a selection of bedroom components which could form a core part of a Holistic Sleep Experience.
Based on our own experiences and research provided by Google, we quickly established that the best way to help individuals improve their sleep is by improving their Sleep Hygiene.
Sleep Hygiene is effectively all the actions/habits/routines that an individuals undertakes in the time leading up to, during and after sleep. Things like consuming caffeine after midday, working out too late, drinking alcohol, using digital devices before bed all correlated to poorer sleep. We reasoned that improving Sleep Hygiene would be one of the biggest levers in improving individual sleep quality.
The rationale behind the Sleep Ecosystem Concept was to illustrate how many opportunities exist if Sleep Tracking was considered more broadly in the context of the home, versus specific devices.
Current sleep tracking experiences do a few things; starting and stopping tracking, and presenting a summary. We felt this was very basic, and did not really provide individuals with much information about what the data meant or how to improve their habits.
Many homes are now equipped with various “smart” objects — speakers, light bulbs, thermostats, doorbells etc. By aggregating the input of multiple sensors that inhabit these devices, we are able to construct a more accurate picture of what an individual’s habits are at home in the lead up to, during and after sleep.
Tying together all the functionality provided by connected home devices and personal devices, we could make sleep tracking totally automated, and also provide individuals with instantly actionable items to improve their sleep routine.
We presented this concept as a future vision, primarily to illustrate our thinking and provide a ‘North Star’ for our subsequent design concepts. We feel there is a great deal of value in creating a tightly integrated home ecosystem for users. However we feel this vision would require considerable more work and due diligence, particularly when addressing how data is used in order to safeguard privacy.
Concept 2: Contextualizing Sleep Hygiene with AR (medium term)
Our focus on improving sleep hygiene led us to a concept which we felt very excited about — using AR as an on-boarding tool to help individuals understand environmental factors that may be affecting their sleep quality.
The tool would work by prompting users to scan their bedroom with the Google Fit app, which would then in real time identify which (if any) factors could be affecting your sleep. After the assessment was complete, we could provide a list of items that could be actioned immediately.
We reasoned this concept was promising because all the technology to create this already exists today. Furthermore it takes the guesswork out of figuring out exactly what in your bedroom could be contributing to your sleep quality (positively or negatively), potentially yielding considerable value to Google Fit users.
Concept 3: Tile Concepts/ Improving Consistency within Google Fit (near term)
Our explorations around what could be done today to improve the Sleep Tracking experience led us to three main solution spaces;
- A sleep tile for Wear OS
- Improving the design language around sleep within Google Fit
We spent a lot of time trying to craft the ideal tile experience, and making it complimentary to the mobile experience within Google Fit.
Sleep Tile
The main challenge we faced when designing the Sleep Tile was around making it useful. Given that sleep tracking tends to happen when you sleep, it doesn’t make much sense to have a Tile on your watch that doesn’t do much when you’re awake. We spent considerable time coming up with a ‘sleep summary’ view which is shown when you wake up. These summaries had to be ‘glanceable’ e.g. easily read and comprehended when taking a brief 2-second glance at your watch. We eventually settled for a very simple design (see below).
Design Language within Google Fit
The challenge we tackled here was concerning how we presented sleep summary data within Google Fit. As part of our initial research, we noticed this area was lacking.
One of the most important ways to improve your sleep, is by being consistent with your bedtime routine. We noticed that Google Fit’s visualizations did not really factor this into their design. As such we decided to come up with a number of variations.
As can be seen, we created a number of different options for showcasing additional information related to consistency within Google Fit’s bedtime visualizations.
Reflections
What Worked Well
- Due to the way Google worked, our team was able to take a brief from idea to prototype often in a matter of weeks. This was a stark contrast to the velocity at which Google operated on internally.
- The benefit of our speedy work cadence was that we were able to explore solution spaces at a rate that Google could not, and as such, we effectively de-risked approaches that might not yield viable long term solutions to tricky problems that involved both hardware/software/integration with other ecosystems.
- Our work was well received and widely shared internally at Google. By being effectively an “external” internal team, we provided signal amongst the noise. There were situations where we would independently arrive at the same design solution as other internal teams, which was seen as a positive signal that the best design solution had emerged by applying the same evolutionary pressures.
What didn’t work so well
- It was difficult to get a good understanding of who we were designing for. Google did not have a clear picture of who it’s target demographic was with a lot of the Wear OS/Google Fit work. This made it difficult for us, as designing for everyone is designing for no one. As a result of this lack of focus, our designs often were very conservative and incremental vs creating value from completely reimagining things.
- Another thing which began to happen was that we began to design for future scenarios which did not exist yet. Speculative design is fun, but it can become a low value activity if acting in a vacuum without access to ground truth. When presented with situations like this, our recourse was to provide our own independent market/user research which we would conduct and present back to our clients.
- We occasionally struggled to work remote/asynchronously with our counterparts at Google. Due to the limited amount of time we had to share progress and gather feedback, we sometimes had to operate in a vacuum and use our judgement to make our best approximations. In future, I would prefer to maintain as tight a feedback loop when making decisions as possible.
- Another aspect of this project which I wasn’t a fan of was that our design work was largely decoupled from Engineering efforts. Given that we were exploring solution spaces way before engineering became involved in this particular instance (Sleep Tracking), it became difficult to know what aspects of our work would eventually make it to being built. We also had no immediate feedback loop from live features as you would have from products that are launched and live. This made it much harder to make decisions based on real ground-truth data.
