[x] is Google's research and development lab, focused on moonshot technologies—often outlandish ideas, that if successful, have the potential to radically change the world. Steffe has worked onsite and remotely with the [x]UX team over the past 2 years across various [x] projects.

+ User Interface Design
+ Brand Strategy
+ Product Design


Energy kites, contact lens' that detect insulin levels, internet balloons, self-driving cars, delivery drones—[x] is made up of brilliant risk takers focused on impossible ideas that have the potential to change the world we live in.


***Because of the secret nature of [x], I hope you'll understand the vagueness of the "work" show.
Makani's energy kite


Working on the [x]UX team allowed me to work across the majority of projects at [x]. From product design for Baseline, part of [x]'s Life Science program, to designing retrieval guides for Loon, the work was diverse, challenging and moved quickly pushing the designers to be nimble problem solvers able to move from one moonshot to the next.


With Baseline, the challenge was: how do you design a product that can engage people everyday, multiple times a day, for 5 years? Where the research is dependent on people's engagement, inputing this data, with little return benefit other than potentially helping doctors figure out what the baseline of health looks like in America?


While at [x] I worked on the product design, branding and question-based icon sets for Baseline alongside the research team and UX team, doctors and developers at Life Sciences. 


Loon is bringing internet to the most remote areas in the world, flying 60,000 ft in the stratosphere and delivering 4G to places like Sri Lanka, rural New Zealand and Indonesia's islands.


Launching a helium filled balloon 60,000 ft in the air, tracking it and retrieving is a massive effort. I had the chance to work with the team on a variety of instruction manuals, outlining how to deconstruct, prepare and ship the balloons back to a Loon center when someone finds a fallen balloon. 


Project Wing is a drone delivery system focused on delivering to places that same-day couriers might not reach. All 31 of Project Wing’s full-scale test flights have been conducted in Australia, which has a more permissive “remotely piloted aircraft” (i.e. domestic drones) policy than the US. 


I had the opportunity to work with the Project Wing team on branding efforts for their internal product testing app, an exercise in designing something interim the team could rally around. 

Google Self-Driving Car Project