PDFs in Drive

BUSINESS GOALS

Part of Drive’s 2025 strategy is to improve the consumption experience for 3rd party file types, including of PDFs.

CONTEXT

Drive has long supported viewing PDFs but hasn't made consequential updates to its PDF experience in years. Drive is adding table stake features allowing users to fill out forms, easily navigate, edit, and annotate PDFs without leaving Drive.

FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH

1.7 billion views per week

1st most commonly viewed file types in Drive across all platforms

8% of all files in Drive

Drive is missing table stake features

90% of participants were satisfied with the overall experience

No one indicated the experience was “Very difficult”

However, there is always room for improvements — Zoom functionality was the most common complaint, followed by the ability to edit or annotate files

MY APPROACH

Since Drive is introducing a series of new PDF features and tools over the next few years, I wanted to define the informations architecture patterns and principles to successfully scale future work

The positioning of the viewing and markup toolbars are the only elements in the layout in question due to existing precedent and established patterns in Workspace for file information, navigation, collaboration, and workflow

We explored designs for 18 features to help leadership and cross-functional partners define a multi-year vision and roadmap.

USABILITY STUDY

I created a prototype to evaluate opening, navigating, viewing, and editing features.

DECISIONS

We made a few decisions based on the findings:

CONSTRAINTS

At this point, we learned that eng grossly underestimated features development time, and we had to reduce scope.

PRIORITIZATION

To determine what features to priority, we triangulated user priority, product priority, and eng cost.

MVP included:

REFINE DESIGN

We refined the visual, motion, and accessibility design

LAUNCH

Part of Drive’s 2025 strategy is to improve the consumption experience for 3rd party file types, including of PDFs.

Drive has long supported viewing PDFs but hasn't made consequential updates to its PDF experience in years. Drive is adding table stake features allowing users to fill out forms, easily navigate, edit, and annotate PDFs without leaving Drive.

1.7 billion views per week

1st most commonly viewed file types in Drive across all platforms

8% of all files in Drive

Drive is missing table stake features

90% of participants were satisfied with the overall experience

No one indicated the experience was “Very difficult”

However, there is always room for improvements — Zoom functionality was the most common complaint, followed by the ability to edit or annotate files

Since Drive is introducing a series of new PDF features and tools over the next few years, I wanted to define the informations architecture patterns and principles to successfully scale future work

The positioning of the viewing and markup toolbars are the only elements in the layout in question due to existing precedent and established patterns in Workspace for file information, navigation, collaboration, and workflow

We explored designs for 18 features to help leadership and cross-functional partners define a multi-year vision and roadmap.

How do users open PDFs and what are they doing with them?

Where do users want these features to live – in the file viewer (overlay) or a new tab similar to other Editors?

Is the PDF viewer another Editor?

Should we align with Editors or define a 3rd party file type design standard?

Are these feature usable and meet users expectation?

I created a prototype to evaluate opening, navigating, viewing, and editing features.

Participants open PDFs in the same tab when they need to perform a quick task, like finding a piece of information

Participants open PDFs in a new tab for longer tasks, like deep analysis, comparing files, and continuing to doing other task in Drive

IA and icon usage made sense to participants

The “Save” button behavior wasn’t clear since all Google Editors auto-save

Participants expect PDFs to align with Editors patterns and behavior

We made a few decisions based on the findings:

Closely align with Editors — including visual design and interaction patterns

Add navigation and viewing tools to the file viewer (overlay). Add editing tools to the new tab to support longer tasks, and include files

At this point, we learned that eng grossly underestimated features development time, and we had to reduce scope.

To determine what features to priority, we triangulated user priority, product priority, and eng cost.

MVP included:

UI Updates - toolbar

Form filling - standard forms only

Files menus

Zoom improvements

Table of content

Thumbnail preview

We refined the visual, motion, and accessibility design

We launched form filling to GA and the viewing features to Dogfood. Next steps are to capture luanch metrics.