How do people meet? Google has been asking this question since 2014, when it first paired physical design with trailblazing UX and UI to create Jamboard, a digital whiteboard that fosters real-time creative collaboration unencumbered by geographic proximity. To bring Google’s AI into the physical realm, product manager TJ Varghese teamed up with industrial designer Johan Liden, founder of Aruliden, an independent agency that cares deeply about how design impacts our everyday lives. According to Liden, “we entered into this collaboration looking through the lens of interaction by asking ourselves: How can the hardware we interface with when conferencing be more seamless, inviting, and more human?”
Over the years, Google has stood at the forefront of conferencing innovation by designing seamless video and messaging platforms to humanize digital communication more human with hardware that makes digital meetings more seamless, inviting, and immersive. Video conferencing hardware is the foundation of the new Google Meet Series One, the duo’s latest meeting room apparatus that helps users feel like they’re working together, not just meeting together.
Encased in a pared-back shell that reduces each component to strictly the essentials, Google Meet Series One is a seamless ecosystem of six products suited to fit seamlessly into any space—a huddle room, large-scale tech company, or even a fledgling startup. Simple and soft, the hardware features rounded edges, minimal lines, and a modular family of familiar yet unassuming accoutrements that reduced the core elements to their purest form. Its straightforward design makes starting a video conference an intuitive task—one that’s understandable, easy, and, above all, enjoyable.
Google Meet Series One solves all the familiar and unwelcome grievances with digital conferencing. The discreet, people-focused system seamlessly integrates with Google Meet, Google Calendar, and other Google platforms to make meetings simple and straightforward, like they should be. It creates an experience—ultimately both digital and physical—that’s as close as possible to being in the same room.
“It’s been incredible to actualize Google Meet Series One in a global pandemic,” says Google product manager TJ Varghese. “We worked with remote teams across the globe, without traveling, and with offices still closed, to usher in the next wave of video-conferencing hardware. While it’s still unclear when offices will fully reopen, we are thrilled to help offices welcome back employees with thoughtfully designed, cutting-edge hardware that will change the course of how video conferences are experienced.”
As promoted in the Surface-Approved section of Design Dispatch.
