YouTube / AI Playground

Scope: UX/UI design, Art direction (Mobile)

Role: Lead Product Designer, YouTube GenAI Creation Team

YouTube reaches billions, but creation has always belonged to the few. AI Playground changes that.

A dedicated surface within the YouTube app, it lowers the barrier to creative expression through AI-powered media generation: a space where anyone can experiment, discover, and make something their own.

About the Team

I led product design on YouTube's Media Generator team alongside researchers, content designers, PMs, and engineers, partnering with Google DeepMind to bring cutting-edge generative models into a consumer experience built for everyone.

My Role

My job was to translate frontier AI capabilities into something intuitive and inspiring, driving design end-to-end from early exploration through final implementation.

Process

We started with a core question: how do you invite someone to create when they don't know where to begin? After testing open-ended prompting against more guided flows, we converged on a Gemini-powered approach using pre-defined parameters, giving people just enough structure to spark creativity without constraining it.

Content Strategy & IA

I built a modular framework with our content designer, structured around four key moments in the user journey:

• OOBE — sets expectations so users arrive knowing what Playground is

• Hero Carousel — the primary inspiration surface and entry point into creation

• Tools — a clear, scannable view of everything available

• Examples — curated outputs that make the blank canvas feel less daunting

Options

We explored multiple visualization approaches for these modules and iterated extensively to identify the design format that both enhanced the user experience and inspired creativity.

Information Architecture

The framework was built as a series of interchangeable modules, each tailored to a key stage of the user experience: from setting expectations, to driving discovery, simplifying navigation, and empowering creation, and learning.

1. OOBE

   Sets expectations so users arrive knowing what Playground is

2. Hero Carousel

The primary inspiration surface and entry point into creation

Creation Flow

The hero carousel provides streamlined entry points into the creation flow for media generation.

3. Tools

A clear, scannable view of everything available

4. Examples

Curated outputs that make the blank canvas feel less daunting

Content

I partnered with the PM team to generate final product content using Veo, Google DeepMind's video generation model, providing art direction to ensure outputs reflected real user needs, not just what looked impressive in a demo.

Future Milestones

M1 delivered the MVP, core creation tools (image, video, music, effects) and a modular system built to grow. The roadmap ahead includes open prompting, animation, remixing, and editing, all designed into the architecture from day one.

Reflection

Designing for AI creation at this scale meant constantly navigating the tension between possibility and accessibility. The most important design decisions weren't about what the technology could d, they were about what to show, what to hide, and how to make a blank canvas feel like an invitation rather than a barrier.