This past summer, I worked for Accenture at Google as a User Experience Research Intern at the Mountain View office. I worked as part of the Localization team: our team’s focus was to study and research patterns, and derive insights about the user bases of various Google products and services, in a myriad of geographical, cultural and social contexts—and how that informed product and design decisions.

Our holistic goal was to make Google’s vastly diverse user base feel at home by making products feel native, in over 75+ languages and cultures.

A Little Background

Coming for a purely design focussed background, research had always been a precursor to the larger design process for me. Never before had I dove this deep into the research realm and let myself be consumed by the user —without eagerly waiting to use those insights in the design. The whole experience gave me a lot of room to better align my purview towards research and made me more particular and disciplined about the process.

What I Worked On

Since my work is covered by an NDA, I can’t disclose exact details of what I did, but my work included:

• Developing experiment plans to test out feasibility and demand of novel ideas in the market, as well as evaluating features and branding options for the same.
• Formulating and executing international research studies remotely, while coordinating with research vendors and field partners across various timezones.
• Analyzing raw research data and preparing presentation decks to deliver key insights back to the product team.

What I Learned

Linguistic and Cultural Side of UX:

With more and more people coming online everyday, it’s becoming increasingly important to localize content & experiences, to achieve the overarching goal of making users feel at home—regardless of their cultural, geographic or linguistic context. My definition of crafting pleasurable experiences widened, beyond the commonplace UX principles of look and feel, and into deeper concepts such as language, tone of voice, articulation and even gestures.

Designing for Research

We’re taught to create and establish context for users while designing products, empathize with them, and make them feel at home using our products in the Human-Centered Design approach. Rather than designing the experience of using a product (which I was used to), this time I was designing for the experience of being researched. That included a variety of new practices: ranging from framing questions in an unbiased manner, establishing a context wherein they can openly share their opinions, as well as deciding what kind of research method was appropriate for the kind of data required.

Don’t Assume

Even while being labelling ourselves as unbiased and open-minded designers and researchers alike can sometimes find themselves being subconsciously mentally skewed into the direction of their objective. I was no alien to this malpractice, but through repeated practice and the guidance of my more-than-capable colleagues, I learned how to always keep myself in check and free myself of any preconceived notions or assumptions.