Innovation By Design 2014: Abigail Gray, Head of Design On The AOL Services Team

We're placing the spotlight on attendees of our upcoming Innovation By Design Conference! Join Co.Design senior writer Mark Wilson for a live chat right here with Abigail Gray, Head of Design at AOL Services. The chat takes place on October 10th at 1:30 p.m.--but you can start submitting your questions now using the "Make a comment" box below!

Abigail Gray

Head of Design on the AOL Services Team

In the run-up to our Innovation By Design Awards Conference on October 15th, we're chatting with some of the event's attendees and finalists.

On October 10th, Co.Design senior writer Mark Wilson interviews Abigail Gray, Head of Design at AOL Services. (You can submit your questions to this event, too, using the "Make a comment" box below.)

At AOL, Abigail leads design for main services products like content and advertising. Before landing her gig at AOL, she worked at digital design agency Fluid, where she was the VP of Experience Design. She's also worked at a number of agencies, including HUGE, where she was VP of User Experience; Sequel Studio, where she was the Associate Director of Interactive Design; R/GA, where she was a senior interactive designer; and Digitas, where she was a lead interaction designer.

The chat begins at 1:30 p.m. In the meantime, you can learn more about our upcoming Innovation By Design conference here.

3rd & 7 37yd

Hey everybody! We're planning to get started in about 30 minutes. I urge you to get in your questions early (now works!) to give them a better shot of being answered.

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:04:51 PM
Alright, it's time to get started. Abigail! Thanks for joining us today.

My first question for you is about your background. You’re not a web designer by trade--you actually started out your career as an architect.

Where do architecture and web design overlap?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:31:11 PM
My pleasure - thank you so much for having me.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:31:38 PM
Great question! In my mind, they mesh perfectly because they are both exercises in Social Choreography.

What I mean by that is when an architect designs a space - be it a home or a large public work - it is an expression of their utopian ideal of what society should be like. It gives people the space [literally] to do what they want, but certain interactions and behaviors are encouraged while others are harder. Also, architecture isn't finished until people are in it, using it. User experience and digital in general is the same. We allow people to do what they want, but we gently nudge them toward the paths we hope they will take.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:31:48 PM
Interesting, so you're saying with web design, you want to nudge people to be closer to utopia?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:32:43 PM
Indeed. Its my job to foster connections between people but also between people and brands. How we make meaningful connections and bring value to people’s lives is my idea of utopia. Or at least the part I can help create.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:33:44 PM
You're the "Head of Design on the AOL Services Team"--what does that mean you actually oversee? A lot of AOL's internal products, right?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:34:58 PM
I have the pleasure of running a centralized design group that serves all of Membership and AOL Core. This is special and exciting for a few reasons: we have a group of really talented design specialists – User Experience designers, Visual Designers, Creative Technologists and Copywriters with digital agency backgrounds to AOL to act as internal disruptors and partners to our businesses. We’re reinventing some of our biggest products to help push innovation forward at AOL.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:37:32 PM
Could you name a few of those products?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:38:33 PM
We cover all our communications products like Mail, AIM and all our subscription-based products. One we're really excited about is the new AOL app we just launched in August.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:39:33 PM
OK--I don’t think it’s a secret that most people don’t exactly think cutting edge, gorgeously designed products when they think “AOL”--what are you doing to change that? Or is that the goal?

(Btw, commenter “AN” also asked this question!)

by Mark Wilson edited by Anjali Mullany 10/10/2014 5:40:24 PM
That’s true. AOL was a leader in bringing the internet to the masses. It’s a much more crowded space now. But that is why my team exists. Its reinvention time here at AOL and there’s a ton of exciting work to bring back our innovator status. That was part of the draw for me. AOL is so ripe for a comeback its not even funny. I want to be part of that story.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:42:01 PM
I’d bet many people don’t realize that AOL Mail is still a juggernaut, with over 30 million of active users--people who are actually reading and sending mail on a monthly basis. A lot of these account holders have probably been with you for more than a decade.

Do you worry about ostracizing them with redesigns? How do you update that core product but not leave them seething that a button is in a new place?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:43:06 PM
That’s a great question. The answer is fearlessly and carefully at the same time. We do a lot of research – we look at what people are doing, what they want to do and how to serve them better. Then, we look around. Our users have been with us for a long time, but they always want what all digital audiences do – delightful simple experiences that save them time and help them to connect to the people most important to them and what they need to know to stay informed.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:45:25 PM
The other thing is that we test. A lot. We are a rare company that actually reads every single piece of user feedback. We obsessively look at what people like and what they don't like. We iterate. We improve. We measure.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:46:32 PM
Hold on--so do you mean, literally, every email that comes in complaining about AOL.com is read by the company?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:47:52 PM
Yes. Isn't that amazing? I get daily reports and I read them all too.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:48:16 PM
That's wild.

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:48:44 PM
And not just AOL.com. We ready every piece of feedback about every product we have.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:48:59 PM
Isn't that approaching the problem of having too much feedback? The old "faster horse" scenario?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:49:57 PM
That's a customer service we offer. We have to be connected to them - listening every day. The reality is that it informs our roadmaps.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:50:56 PM
We are in the business of delighting customer with magical experience - if we accept that we have to listen.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:51:18 PM
So the new AOL app is the first to use a native mail client. You’d mentioned some really impressive engagement stats that have come since (a ~500% increase on Android, was it?).

Do you attribute those purely to that faster/more integrated native mail experience, or do you have any other tips or lessons you could share from the redesign?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:51:42 PM
One last point on your previous question: But this isn't the way we create new things and really jump ahead innovation - wise. As Steve Jobs said, people don't know what they want. You have to show it to them first. So some things are just new.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:52:29 PM
Yes! One of the ways we brought the numbers to design is that we looked at what people are doing with their messages - they either delete things or mark as unread to remind themselves to triage it later. We made those the two easiest actions to hit when looking at your inbox.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:54:02 PM
Swipe Gesture

by billy.snow 10/10/2014 5:54:52 PM
Interesting, so by making the two most common functions easier to perform, people performed them more?

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:54:56 PM
Seems simple, but it made things much easier for our users.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:54:59 PM
Yes, and this simplicity is one of the things that drew them away from the IMAP clients. It made it more attractive for them to use our app instead.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:56:10 PM
Alright, we're about out of time, but let's take some questions from the audience:

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:57:17 PM
Does AOL have a plan on how to approach a design system to bring consistency across all properties in a fluid and organic way like Google did?

by Ray Donovan 10/10/2014 5:57:19 PM
What Ray's referring to is Google's Material Design philosophy they debuted at their i/o conference.

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 5:58:58 PM
Actually this is one of the thrilling pieces of what my group is doing right now. AOL Inc isn’t looking to enforce a uniform creative across all our segments, but for the AOL Core businesses [Mail, Dotcom, AIM, etc] we want a level of unity. We want the user who navigates across our AOL branded experiences to really experience us as a single brand with a set of related experiences within it. Stay tuned – its going to be amazing!

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 5:59:54 PM
Alright, last question:

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 6:00:45 PM
Hit me!

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 6:00:52 PM
What's the biggest challenge of designing for such a big corporation?

by dee edited by Anjali Mullany 10/10/2014 6:01:10 PM
The biggest challenge is the biggest opportunity. AOL hasn't always been a design-led company and so we work with some businesses that haven't made significant updates to their products recently. My group is obsessed with digital and the trends across technology. We do a lot of education about what's really pushing the envelop and how AOL can capitalize on that.

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 6:04:02 PM
We're out of time! Abigail, thanks for stopping by today. Will see you next week at the 2014 Innovation By Design Awards and Conference!

by Mark Wilson 10/10/2014 6:05:46 PM
My pleasure! Can't wait to see you there! Many thanks for the opportunity and great questions. Have a good weekend!

by Abigail Gray 10/10/2014 6:06:22 PM
Thanks for joining us everyone! Sorry we couldn't get to all of your questions -- feel free to tweet Mark Wilson and Abigail Gray to continue the conversation on Twitter.

by Anjali Mullany 10/10/2014 6:08:15 PM
If you liked what you read today, be sure to sign up for Co.Design's newsletter, as well.

by Anjali Mullany 10/10/2014 6:09:18 PM