Thumbnail showing a drawing of a process in a diagram format with light colors on a white paper

Project Overview

Role: UX Designer, ADS Team
Objective: Establish UX as a strategic partner in project development
Duration: Several years

As a UX designer on the ADS team, I encountered a dynamic where UX was often treated as a service rather than a strategic partner. Google has always had an engineering-focused environment, and this was especially true within the ads department, where it was common to have just one designer for every 15 or more engineers. Typically, UX was introduced late in the project cycle, often to address quality concerns right before launch or to polish a promising product that performed well in experiments. This late-stage involvement made it challenging for the UX team to shape project direction or maintain quality standards effectively.

Over several years, I worked to integrate UX earlier in the development process, ultimately creating a robust UX framework that became an essential part of project development.

Challenges and Initial Context

When I first joined the team, UX was rarely involved at the start of projects and was often brought in midway or just before launch. Frequently, UX’s role was to polish promising projects that had performed well in initial experimentation but would sometimes see performance drop when upgraded to higher quality standards. This approach limited our ability to provide meaningful feedback or suggest improvements without risking timeline delays or raising concerns about the experimental results.

Since UX wasn’t part of the approval process, engineering teams typically held the final say, which often led to compromises in user experience. To address this, I started attending engineering meetings early in the project lifecycle, proactively offering support and guidance to integrate UX considerations from the outset.

Establishing UX as a Strategic Partner

One key strategy was to participate in engineering stand-ups, strategy meetings and project management syncs from the outset, proactively offering guidance and support. I also established weekly office hours in both the U.S. and China to assist engineers with UX-related issues, providing code snippets and detailed specifications to streamline their work. Additionally, I triaged all incoming requests to set realistic expectations for engineering partners regarding timeframe, involvement, and any research needs.

This approach made UX involvement more efficient and less burdensome for engineering teams, gradually transforming UX's role from a support service to a collaborative partner.

Making It Official

The next step was to formalize UX’s role within the process. Although our internal launch protocol didn’t initially require UX approval, I worked with my team to create a UX framework and scorecard system, establishing clear guidelines and checkpoints throughout the project lifecycle.

By building relationships with engineering leadership, we secured an unofficial process where leaders could pause launches on UX’s behalf, encouraging teams to seek UX review before moving forward. Over time, this evolved into a formal UX scorecard and feedback system.

Driving Adoption and Standardization

I developed a comprehensive UX framework that included detailed guidelines for padding, colors, accessibility, and more. The framework also provided code snippets to simplify implementation for engineers, ensuring consistency across projects and minimizing the need to reinvent solutions.

By branding the framework and making it accessible, shareable, and easy to reference, I encouraged adoption across other teams, which improved alignment and collaboration. This framework also helped with onboarding new engineers and standardizing communication between UX teams with similar goals but different approaches.

cover of a presentation about modifying colors using HSL directives

Impact and Outcomes

The adoption of the UX framework and scorecard led to stronger collaboration between UX, engineering, and project management. We saw an increase in teams reaching out to UX earlier in the process, and two official UX checkpoints were added to the development cycle.

This impact extended beyond the ADS team, as other Google teams referenced the framework for their projects. Key milestones included the successful transition of Google’s color system to a cohesive HSL-based model and the implementation of a UX scorecard to evaluate project quality.

Key Takeaways

This project underscored the importance of empathy, strategic compromise, and the ability to advocate for UX in ways that align with engineering and business goals. By providing clear, actionable resources and building strong relationships across teams, I was able to position UX as central to the ADS team’s development process.

This shift resulted in improved product quality and a more cohesive, user-focused approach to project delivery.