Project Description

This project encompasses the visual design as well as the primary functionality of Google, the web–based search. Google states that "others" consider them as the "ultimate answering machine". Somewhat contrary to Google's façade of simplicity and user-friendliness, some users view the service as over-simplified, one dimensional and lacking in user options. The primary goals are to improve the design quality of google, integration and visibility of the site tools and increase appeal to their user base.

Specific Goals

To develop overall design and functionality elements that result in a "productive" experience of web search. The web search will not only focus on popular results but also include information on the periphery to create "serendipitous" experiences. The developed product will seamlessly integrate the various tools of the search site. The functionality should be very user-friendly, customizable and inviting.

Audience

Google.com is one of the 5 most popular sites on the Internet and is used around the world by millions of people. Google is ubiquitous to web search. The term "google it" has entered our everyday language.

Google is the #1 search engine in the US at (56.9%) of all searches. (One Stat.com 2005)
Google is the #1 search engine in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Australia (Nielsen//NetRatings 6/04)
Global unique users per month: 81.9 million (Nielsen/NetRatings 6/03)
Languages for which Google provides an interface: More than 100
Languages in which Google offers results: 35
Global audience: More than 50 percent of Google.com traffic is from outside the US
(Source Google.com)

The client

The client is the Director of Consumer Web Products at Google. She will relay feedback to the team throughout the various phases of development.

Source of the content
The content is dynamically driven via the vast network of Google's data servers.

Proposed project scope
There is not a finite number of content and pages as the data on the WWW increases on an on-going basis. The specific challenge of our project is the integration of the various search tools, options, and preferences into an overall form that is both exploratory and user-friendly.