Workspace Video Playback Visual Refresh

Google Workspace had a video primitive to power video experiences across our products — encompassing video recording, editing, sharing, and playback. The goal was to ensure a cohesive experience for our users, accelerate innovation across our product teams, and build for the future of work.

UX LEAD

IMPACT

Collaborated with designers across Workspace, I contributed to, led and directed the delivery of 9 major features, resulting in:

CONTEXT

Workspace has a video primitive to power the video experiences across Google Workspace. The Editors create a new video editing tool (Vids), Meet is improving their asynchronous meeting experience, and Drive is updating the video player to better support all cross-product journeys. These updates are all part of Workspace's effort to make video a more seamless and integrated part of Google Workspace.

RESEARCH

Users were not satisfied with the current playback experience

76% of users expressed frustration due to:

CSAT 56% • DSAT 30%

“Looks like YouTube but doesn’t entirely behave like it”

PROBLEMS

Because the Workspace player looked like YouTube, users expected it to act like YouTube

However, the underlying API lacked essential features—specifically chapters and preview scrubbing—with no roadmap for improvement

The player was dated and didn’t align GM3 standards, creating a disjointed user experience

Plus, Google Vids was creating a player that diverged from the Drive experience

OPPORTUNITY

I recognized this user pain point and successfully secured buy-in from Workspace leads to prioritize a visual update ahead of other critical features

Ensuring dedicated resource allocation and cross-product alignment

GOAL

Make video a hero journey across Workspace by delivering a unified async video experience

APPROACH

My initial approach focused on establishing the framework for the new player. I defined the foundational components, building blocks, and interactions.

We conducted a competitive analysis to understand feature gaps and industry standard patterns.

I organized and co-facilitated visual design brainstorm session to drive alignment and foster collaboration across Drive, Vids, Workspace Design Systems, and Meet.

Our team defined two direction and wanted to move forward with direction 1.

PROTOTYPE

I created a prototype to evaluated the usability of direction 1.

FINDINGS

The findings were positive.

Our team wanted to move forward with Direction 1, but I hypothesized that wouldn’t scale. As a result, I organized and facilitated a cross-Workspace design sprint to ensure the new design worked well with upcoming features impacting the video player

As we explored and evaluated these journeys during the sprint, we discovered issues with the timeline and decided to remove it from the container.

We learned that the alternative direction was better suited for upcoming features. We secured leadership buy-in to pivot direction.

DEFINED PRINCIPLES

Uniquely Workspace - Not YouTube! GM3

Adaptable Interface - same atoms everywhere, responsive to every device

Video first = user first – UI restructure to put video first, improved accessibility

Empower collaboration & productivity – Comments & Chapters

We moved forward with the open timeline and refined the visual and motion design.

“I have a good experience with viewing videos in Drive of late. In fact, I like the new update, the look, espeically with the function of letting you pick the playback speed”

“The service has been impeccable lately! This [player] looks so cool. Keep going!”

“I like it! It’s not like YouTube anymore; I think it works better and tt reflecs a new personality, is modern, and could improve the experience for usres. I really like it—good job!”

TEAM

Google Modernize Workspace Video Player

Workspace Video Playback Visual Refresh

Google Workspace had a video primitive to power video experiences across our products — encompassing video recording, editing, sharing, and playback. The goal was to ensure a cohesive experience for our users, accelerate innovation across our product teams, and build for the future of work.

Defined a multi-year UX Video Playback Strategy to modernize the Workspace Playback experience — UI refresh was the first project

Successfully secured buy-in from Workspace leads to prioritize a visual update ahead of other critical features

Drove alignment across Workpsace team to ensure we built a scalable system

Collaborated with designers across Workspace, I contributed to, led and directed the delivery of 9 major features, resulting in:

~84M weekly views

Increase CSAT from 56% to 75%

Decreased DSAT from 21% to 15%

Users were not satisfied with the current playback experience

76% of users expressed frustration due to:

Reliability buffering, processing latency

Looking like YouTube confuses users

Feature discoverability

CSAT 56% • DSAT 30%

“Looks like YouTube but doesn’t entirely behave like it”

Because the Workspace player looked like YouTube, users expected it to act like YouTube

However, the underlying API lacked essential features—specifically chapters and preview scrubbing—with no roadmap for improvement

The player was dated and didn’t align GM3 standards, creating a disjointed user experience

Plus, Google Vids was creating a player that diverged from the Drive experience

I recognized this user pain point and successfully secured buy-in from Workspace leads to prioritize a visual update ahead of other critical features

Ensuring dedicated resource allocation and cross-product alignment

Make video a hero journey across Workspace by delivering a unified async video experience

My initial approach focused on establishing the framework for the new player. I defined the foundational components, building blocks, and interactions.

We conducted a competitive analysis to understand feature gaps and industry standard patterns.

I organized and co-facilitated visual design brainstorm session to drive alignment and foster collaboration across Drive, Vids, Workspace Design Systems, and Meet.

Our team defined two direction and wanted to move forward with direction 1.

I created a prototype to evaluated the usability of direction 1.

The findings were positive.

Majority of the users liked the new direction of the video player! And thought it looked “modern” and “sleek”

Creators were agnostic about the appearance and care more about collaboration and performance

Some felt the controls gets in the way of the video

Nearly a third of the participants mentioned the new design had some form of familiarity to Apple and its video player on Mac

The video hover preview on Drive was a hit!

Our team wanted to move forward with Direction 1, but I hypothesized that wouldn’t scale. As a result, I organized and facilitated a cross-Workspace design sprint to ensure the new design worked well with upcoming features impacting the video player

Chapters

Comments

Reactions

As we explored and evaluated these journeys during the sprint, we discovered issues with the timeline and decided to remove it from the container.

We learned that the alternative direction was better suited for upcoming features. We secured leadership buy-in to pivot direction.

Uniquely Workspace - Not YouTube! GM3

Adaptable Interface - same atoms everywhere, responsive to every device

Video first = user first – UI restructure to put video first, improved accessibility

Empower collaboration & productivity – Comments & Chapters

We moved forward with the open timeline and refined the visual and motion design.

Satisfaction stays the same

Dissatisfaction decreases by 10%

Perception of modernity went up 20%

No increase in latency

“I have a good experience with viewing videos in Drive of late. In fact, I like the new update, the look, espeically with the function of letting you pick the playback speed”

“The service has been impeccable lately! This [player] looks so cool. Keep going!”

“I like it! It’s not like YouTube anymore; I think it works better and tt reflecs a new personality, is modern, and could improve the experience for usres. I really like it—good job!”

UX Lead - Me

Visual Designers - Yong Kim (WS Design System), Zoë Knight (Drive)

UXE & Motion Designer - Josh Greco (Drive)

Interaction Designers - Dan Littlewood (Meet), Nida Hameed (Editors), Ron Zhang (Drive Mobile)

Research - Prasanna Muthukumar

Back to Workspace Video Player