Method Podcast, Episode 3

Hosted by Interaction Designer Aidan Simpson, the Method podcast profiles designers at Google, giving listeners an inside look at their journeys and design choices. In this episode, Aidan speaks with User Experience Designer Darren Delaye about the unique challenges of designing for VR, the future of Daydream, and Darren’s work across many products over his 12 years at Google. Subscribe to the Method podcast on Google Play, iTunes, or RSS.

A few highlights:

On future dreams for Daydream, 12:53 “One of my main goals is to make VR socially acceptable, or a social activity... It's really magical to be co-present with someone in VR, as if you're in the same room together.”

On the power of having a mission in life and work, 23:55 “I want to help people do things that they didn't think they could do themselves. It's about empowerment.”

On the surprising challenges in VR experience design, 25:09 “A new challenge is not knowing exactly what versions of your platform, your hardware, and the future to design for. The easiest projects are the ones where you know the goals and you know the parameters. But sometimes, working on the Daydream team and in VR, we don't even know what hardware and capabilities we should be thinking about.”

Darren Delaye is a San Francisco-based UX designer currently working on Daydream. Google’s third-ever design intern, Darren has been with the company for nearly 13 years and has designed across a wide range of products and services including Google Maps, Google Ventures, and Google Docs.