Google Pixel & Android

I had the privilege to work on all the Pixel phones (through 2020) released by Google including the very first one! My work has spanned across all facets of the system and I’ve learned and grown with each release. I’ve worked on core system transitions (app switching, activity transitions, ect..), Google Assistant integrations, branded and delightful moments, Google Search integrations, core infrastructure updates, physics based motion and much more! And of course all of this work was done in collaboration with an amazing release team.

Google Pixel 4

The Google Pixel 4 was my busiest and most exciting release. The combination of a new gesture navigation and a redesigned Google Assistant made for a lot of enjoyable yet difficult work. Pairing the new physics based gesture animations with the 90hz screen of the Pixel 4 was a dream 😍

Gesture Navigation - Project Page

Google Assistant Invocation - Project Page

Pixel 3 - Welcome Animation

Pixel 2 - Welcome Animation

Branded Moments

It was always fun to break out of the complicated System UI world and create some fun branded moments for Google on the Pixel phones. These animations were used to help welcome users to their Pixel phones and was one of the first things they would see when activating a new phone.

Google Logo Animation

We wanted to update Android’s boot animation to something more branded with the launch of the Pixel phone. We decided to animate from the Google logo to the G letter mark. There was already some great Google logo animations but none existed for this specific transition. It was an absolute pleasure to animate this transition for such an important brand and this animation has since been used across many Google products beyond the Pixel phone.

System Transitions

App Opening

I designed a new transition for opening apps on Android P. The previous design utilized a simple mask reveal that wasn’t very polished.

The new transition was designed to grow and transition the app window directly from the app icon. This required a multi year collaboration with engineering on an animation synchronization API to be able to perfectly align the icon motion with the app window.

Folder Animation

One of the first projects that I worked on was improving the folder opening and closing transition. The prior transition utilized a mask reveal and a redesign of the visuals gave opportunity for a more direct and connected experience. While a fairly simple animation from first glance; great care went into considering icon positioning for large folders, multi page folders, rearranging icons within the folder, and more.

Task Switching

Task switching is an animation that takes you from one application to another. This was a global system wide transition that was heavily utilized in Android. Great care went into ensuring our new design worked well for a myriad of circumstances. The transition was designed with a horizontal motion to help reinforce the new spatial model for Android O and help users understand where to find their previous task if they were looking for it.