{"334931":{"#nid":"334931","#data":{"type":"news","title":"DM Alum Rebecca Rolfe on Designing for Google Chrome","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBefore she enrolled as a graduate student in Digital Media at Tech, Rebecca Rolfe was already an accomplished Web designer at CNN.com, where she prepared artwork for stories, made charts and graphics for the daily news desk, and even helped out with a complete site redesign in 2009. \u201cAt that point in my career, I was focused primarily on direct storytelling and visual design,\u201d Rolfe says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHer master\u2019s degree in digital media (and an internship at the company) helped land her a permanent, plum job at Google as an interaction designer for its Chrome web browser. However, it\u2019s a completely different role for Rolfe. \u201cA visual designer works out the style\u2014the type, the colors, the sizing,\u201d she says. \u201cMeanwhile, an interaction designer figures out where, for example, the print button goes on the page if it shows up on mobile or tablet devices, what dialog pop-ups you get when you click the button, and how the overall flow works so that you can print your page effortlessly.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen Rolfe was hired for the Chrome team she wasn\u2019t exactly sure how she\u2019d stay busy. \u201cIf you use the Chrome browser you\u2019ll see there\u2019s very little obvious design going on,\u201d she says. \u201cBut that\u2019s what makes it magical. It only feels like there\u2019s not much to design\u2014there\u2019s actually quite a lot there and we just don\u2019t notice it. It aims to be minimal, to let you get to enjoying the Web.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe challenge for Rolfe is to integrate all the Web browser features users care about while keeping Chrome true to its slick and sleek origins. \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting, ongoing problem to solve,\u201d she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERolfe has learned a lot about design in her relatively short time at Google. \u201c\u2018Design for the user and all else will follow\u2019 is the overarching philosophy here,\u201d Rolfe says. \u201cIf we\u2019re thinking of the user first, then we\u2019re doing the right thing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition, she finds it encouraging to work for a company that embraces change. \u201cGoogle isn\u2019t afraid to dismantle something and rebuild it from the ground up for the sake of creating something people love,\u201d Rolfe says. \u201cI could be more daring in my design, to be honest. I\u2019m a good interaction designer because I try to find the clearest path. But Google forces me to \u2018think 10x,\u2019 where we don\u2019t aim to increment little by little, but rather think how what we\u2019re working on can be 10 times more awesome.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EProfile originally featured in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/gtalumnimag.com\/2014\/09\/tech-by-design\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Alumni Magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBefore she enrolled as a graduate student in \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dm.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EDigital Media\u003C\/a\u003E at Tech, Rebecca Rolfe was already an accomplished Web designer at CNN.com, where she prepared artwork for stories, made charts and graphics for the daily news desk, and even helped out with a complete site redesign in 2009\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Before she enrolled as a graduate student in Digital Media at Tech, Rebecca Rolfe was already an accomplished Web designer at CNN.com."}],"uid":"27889","created_gmt":"2014-10-17 10:46:13","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:19","author":"Beth Godfrey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-10-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-10-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"335061":{"id":"335061","type":"image","title":"Rebecca Rolfe","body":null,"created":"1449245150","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:05:50","changed":"1475895046","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:46","alt":"Rebecca Rolfe","file":{"fid":"200472","name":"rr.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rr_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rr_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":618572,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/rr_0.jpg?itok=ndonTvzv"}},"334921":{"id":"334921","type":"image","title":"Google Chrome","body":null,"created":"1449245150","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:05:50","changed":"1475895046","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:46","alt":"Google Chrome","file":{"fid":"200470","name":"google_chrome.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/google_chrome_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/google_chrome_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":659577,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/google_chrome_0.jpg?itok=_hgzz01n"}}},"media_ids":["335061","334921"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane\u003Cbr \/\u003EDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Erebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}