A next-generation shopping experience built for Gen Z

Google approached IDEO to formulate a future-facing strategic vision for shopping that would address the unique needs and behaviors of the next generation of shoppers, fuel platform growth, and support Google's shift to the Global Youth market.

Over four months, the team engaged three cohorts of young shoppers across India, Japan, and the US to imagine, build, and validate design solutions. This iterative, collaborative process defined strategic opportunity areas that inspired concepts and prototypes, showing how shopping could fit the ways young adults actually discover, evaluate, and buy.

As the Lead Interaction Designer on the team, I translated the opportunity areas into experiences participants could react to — creating experiential prototypes for research and leading the design of high-fidelity, interactive prototypes for key UX flows across mobile and desktop. I grounded the work in research on edge commerce and emerging technologies, guided fellow designers through prototyping, and collaborated directly with Google stakeholders to keep concepts aligned with the platform's growth ambitions. The final vision influenced the Google Shopping product roadmap, informing innovations like virtual try-on in Search.