Google One

In 2016-2018, Google had the initiative from leadership to create a subscriptions product that would exemplify a premium Google experience. At that time many if not all Google products were free and based on ad revenue, but there was a desire for a premium model that offered an elevated version of Google. This project was code named Subscriptions and handed down to the team I was an interaction designer in, Unicorn.

When I started working on Subscriptions, the app or product version of it was called Google Red. Many names, I know. At that time, it was primarily determined to be a support and service model where users would get assistance in setting up smart home Google devices. This concept would not stay however, as we evolved and changed concepts several time in collaboration with other departments until we ended up with Google One. In this case study I will tell the story of Google One from the point of view of my role as the primary interaction designer on this project until launch.

‍Working on Subscriptions, aka Google Red and later Google One, we had observed that there was not really a user-need driven justification. Additional support could be useful, but at what price point is that justified? It didn’t seem compelling. We needed to have true value for the user in order to ask for a recurring subscription payment, which was the business goal of this project. So far, we only had the support division at Google able to chip in. Our subscribers would get to the front of the line with a human support agent. But this did not feel like a premium experience yet.

As our product concept evolved, we held a Google Design Sprint to quickly come up with ideas and test them for what would be later called Google One. We had a few concepts as the boundaries of the session, a low, mid, and high price tier. With each of these price tiers we had teams come up with ideas of subscription packages. We quickly sketched these concepts out and discussed medium fidelity prototypes. At the conclusion of our project, the specific ideas weren’t utilized, but they helped us imagine why we wouldn’t do what we weren’t going to do. In other words, it helped us affirm our choice to focus on drive subscriptions, and it also helped us to put some more imaginative ideas in the back pocket for later on.

As our product concept evolved, so did the possible compelling uses of the Android app. Users could now use the app to check how much storage they were using, sign up for more storage, manage their subscription, backup or restore their phone, redeem rewards, or get discounts on hotel bookings. Just one of these, redeeming rewards, warranted checking in to this app occasionally or receive notifications to get these deals. These benefits all utilized properties across Google, so it became easier for us to work with other teams as we in a sense promoted their products.

My role as interaction designer was to make an easy to use experience for all of these features and benefits. One problem that I mentioned earlier was that with many benefits, users may not even know what Google One is for and about. Because what was formerly Drive storage is now Google One storage, I wanted to convey this as the primary benefit.

Just like Amazon Prime is commonly known to people as “free shipping” or “Prime shipping”, I wanted to convey Google One as “storage” or “backup your phone”. Google One has many more benefits than cloud storage and backing up your phone. But from the user’s perspective, there are millions of apps out there. And I wanted to drive home this concept that Google One is storage, so that they can quickly ascertain the main value proposition and get it if that is something they need. There will always be savvy users who end up there just for Hotels benefits, but for the majority of people, the main driver is storage and backing up your phone.

A couple years after launch, Google One for Android reached over 1 billion downloads according to the Google Play Store.