My key takeaways from Google IO 2019
I had the privilege of attending the 2019 edition of Google IO — Google’s annual event at Mountain View, California. Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain view hosted this year’s edition held between 8th to 10th of May. Being my first IO (and the first trip to the US), there was quite a lot to take in.
In the post, I will share the ones that stood out the most and some thoughts regarding the state of the tech industry and what the future looks like especially from an African perspective. Seeing that I am a product designer and not an engineer, please don’t expect a very technical analysis.
AI and Machine learning is still the future
Right from the Sundar’s keynote to the developer’s keynote, you could discern that Google is investing a lot in AI. A lot of the conversations at IO centered on strides Google is making in artificial intelligence and machine learning. To demonstrate the potential this has, Google used the Assistant to show how quickly it can process requests once you don’t have to connect to the internet each time. Once we tackle the challenges of connectivity, power, and battery usage, I see a lot of opportunities for AI-powered solutions for African markets. Even though it will take a while for emerging markets to leverage this, what Google announced was the first step in what promises to be an exciting journey.
For emerging markets, PWAs are still the way to go
One of the sessions I attended was titled “Building Successful Websites: Case Studies for Mature and Emerging Market.” Twitter, Times Internet from India, and Hulu shared, each over 10 minutes, how they leveraged Progressive Web Apps to build successful products for their users. Times Internet’s story struck a code with me because their market is quite similar to many African markets. It also reminded me of one of our most successful projects with my former team at iSC — Sky.Garden, an m-commerce platform for small and medium-sized merchants in Kenya. My team had the opportunity to build the first version of the platform, and we eschewed building a mobile app for consumers because we believed we could deliver an exceptional experience using a PWA. It paid off, and each time we get a client request for a mobile app, we first explore PWAs. Of course, there are situations where mobile apps are better suited, but we should not default to mobile apps because it is what everyone is advocating for.
Inclusive and ethical design is getting more attention
This year’s conference program had a fair share of topics on designing for accessibility and ethical practices in design. I did three sessions around these topics.
The first one was titled “Designing for accessibility” and what made it enjoyable was the fact that one of the speakers had a hearing disability. Elise Roy shared her personal experience of how becoming deaf at the age of 10 became her greatest gift. She demonstrated how design thinking could be used to solve some of our biggest problems. Elise used three concepts during her talk — average is useless, designing for disability uncovers hidden needs, and people with disability have unique skills.
The other exciting session titled “Designing Human-Centered AI Products” allowed Google to share how they are developing human-centered AI products and how to avoid common AI pitfalls. The People+AI Research team at Google also used the opportunity to share the People+AI Guidebook.
The last topic was something close to my heart and something I would recommend any developer/designer/innovator/entrepreneur to pay closer attention. Titled “Improve Digital Wellbeing: Google’s Approach and Tips for Developers” members of Google’s UX and product team shared learnings about digital well being and how to design for it. While I believe this is a topic that should have been addressed sooner, I was happy to see it being tackled on a large stage. As designers and developers, we have a huge responsibility not to design products that are harmful in the long run. Digital well being should be a priority when creating products.
The side events
Aside from the main IO events, there were a couple of side events organized around IO 2019. The first one I attended was on 7th just before IO and brought together Blacks and LatinX attendees to mingle and interact. On 10th the Google SSA team and Black @ organized an event bringing together black employees at Google and black attendees. It was a great opportunity to mingle and learn from the guys who work at Google. Jollof rice was in the house and so was some good African music.
All in all, Google IO 2019 was an amazing experience. I am looking forward to the 2020 edition. Planning to attend the next one? Here are a few tips:
- Book your sessions in advance. Google releases an app that allows you to do this. It will save you a lot of time as most of them get filled up
- Traveling from Africa? You will probably use Uber or Lyft a lot. Make sure you have a working debit or credit card
- Be ready to Uber/Lyft pool. Getting around on public transport in the Bay Area is a nightmare and UberX is very pricey
- Watch out for the side events. It is easier to network in such settings compared to the main events
Kennedy Kirui is a Nairobi-based Product Designer, UX researcher, and Sprint Master. He is the CEO and Co-founder of Made by People — a design thinking and software consulting firm. Kirui also co-founded Nairobi Design Community (NDC) and is a Product Strategy GDE (Google Dev Expert). You can find him on Twitter as KiruiK.
