Inclusive by Design: Lessons from Google’s Product Practices
Designing technology for everyone isn’t just good practice—it’s a responsibility. Google’s Product Inclusion & Equity team shows how centering marginalized voices leads to better products and stronger businesses.
Introduction
As students preparing for roles in design, engineering, or business, you’ll encounter choices about who you design for. Historically, tech products often failed to serve underrepresented users—from cameras that misrepresented darker skin tones to health devices that gave inaccurate readings for some populations.
Google’s journey, led by Annie Jean-Baptiste and the Product Inclusion & Equity (PI&E) team, shows how a company can evolve to make equity and inclusion a core part of product development. This case study offers you lessons in sustainable, equitable design that you can apply to your own academic projects and future careers.
Key Practices in Inclusive Product Design
Center marginalized voices
Google’s PI&E mission prioritizes historically excluded users in every stage of design and testing, ensuring their needs shape the product.
Move from compliance to delight
The goal is not just to meet minimum standards, but to create experiences where all users feel seen, valued, and represented.
Build accountability
Over 2,000 Googlers volunteered as 'product inclusion champions' to test features and give feedback—showing that inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.
Collaborate with experts
Photographers, academics, and community members provided input to improve technologies like Pixel’s 'Real Tone' camera.
Case Study: Pixel Camera and Real Tone
Challenge
Digital cameras historically failed to capture darker skin tones accurately, creating inequities in representation.
Solution
Google partnered with image experts and communities to test across a wide range of skin tones, hair types, and lighting conditions.
Impact
The Pixel Camera’s 'Real Tone' feature became an industry standard for equitable photography and earned recognition, such as the Cannes Lions Mobile Grand Prix award.
Conclusion
Google’s inclusive design practices show that equity is a driver of innovation. By intentionally centering underrepresented users, the company not only fixed technological blind spots but also built products that better serve everyone.