02 / FOUNDING UX

Google Japan Travel

Founded the design practice for Travel Japan and scaled to Countries of Focus (India and Brazil).

Timeline
2023-2025
Role
Founding designer, UX Lead
Team
Google Travel Japan
Partners
MapsSearchIndiaBrazilNew BetsLodgingPayments

NDA: I've redacted project specifics as I'm unable to share internal artifacts. Instead, I'm bringing focus to my process and decisions.

Mission

Create culturally relevant experiences for Japan, then India and Brazil.

Founding designer for Lodging in Japan, taking the first bet to public ship, and scaling to multiple verticals like Dining and SMBs.

My work led to double-digit % improvements in engagement and helpfulness on Google products with tens of millions of DAU.

I also mentored designers and set up thoughtful scalable paths for new bets in India and Brazil.

Kusatsu Onsen destination page on Google with a hero photo of the hot spring, weather, route time from Shibuya, an area map, and an overview
Japanese hotel booking module with filter chips for breakfast included and free cancellation, and partner prices tagged with meal plans
Shipped: Hotel plan booking and onsen search

Japan

Our team was created to focus on ~100 million domestic Japan travelers, who travel differently from tourists with vastly different needs.

Rowboats on a Tokyo moat beneath cherry trees in full bloom, with city buildings on the far bankThe thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses of Shirakawa-go lit up at dusk under deep snow

I led the user vision and roadmap by advocating for UXR and uncovering needs around seasonality, coupons, and plans. When our team faced a shortage of researchers, I personally conducted interviews to unblock my team and derisk decisions.

I folded user needs into roadmap prioritization, by partnering with PM, Eng, and BD.

Collage of Japanese travel magazine clippings annotated with mood words like hokkori, natsukashii, and iyashi

Details matter.

Googlewide, I advocated for dense design patterns which at first glance, appears as "clutter" to a western audience. We grounded rationale in local needs (desire for detail) and proved it with quick research studies and experiments.

Collage of dense Japanese web and app interfaces: the Yahoo! Japan portal, the Rakuten app's points and coupon dashboard, and eight information-packed promotional bannersDetails drive confidence for a local audience

India

I was then asked to kickstart new bets for the growing India team. Notably, I want to share "Business QRs", a global project I launched from the ground up.

Thesis: Digital entrypoints were getting crowded, and QR serves as a frictionless way to discover more about a business online.

Google Business Profile QR kit folder with printed salon stickers under Materials and a one-page setup guide under Instructions

Bridging the physical and digital world

I did end-to-end physical branding, concepting the iconic hexagonal shape. I also designed merchant onboarding, and crafted the business discovery experience on Google Search - rooted in user studies we ran across Japan and India.

We started experimenting with pilot merchants in a scrappy way - our first run was to a Fedex shop in India!

Google Check us out on Google QR badge for a Shibuya ramen shopGoogle Local favorite Bangalore 2025 QR badge in a gold hexagonal lockup

The Google listing a scan lands on: photos, menu, popular times and reviews for a Bangalore restaurant

After successful iterations and seeing Search engagement uplift, I scaled the branding system across Japan, India and US.

From research, I created a global vision for top dining and travel journeys.

Discover Coimbatore QR billboard mounted above a busy streetPrinted QR banner hanging across a merchant storefrontQR table tent standing on a restaurant tableTypography and colour specification sheet for the QR kitCherry-blossom billboard in Japan showing a Google search for Kyoto hanami spots beside a scannable QR codeIn collaboration with Tropic - I defined hero journeys and art directed the outcomes

International

To create an international design system for Search, I rallied designers in Europe and India to identify shared patterns together, and instilled new components rising from common needs.

I then scaled the country playbook to Brazil, concepting the hero feature that led to new country team investments.

Xinni at a table in the Sao Paulo co-creation workshop while a participant presents a sketched concept over printed screens and sticky notes

Reflections

Seven members of the Google Travel Japan team crouched and standing around the stone marker for Kusatsu's Sainokawara open-air bath, pine hills behind them
The team at Kusatsu Onsen
Google-branded slippers printed with the team's cat mascot
Team swag: designed and printed in-house
White waffle sweatshirt printed with the team's cat mascot

It is a major win for our users and our partners, and would not have happened without your hard work, insights, and leadership.

Julie Farago VP of Engineering, Google

Xinni has shown exceptional leadership and design craft this year… the driving force that has led Japan to become a thriving, effective team…

Your mocks have inspired this project to progress and built excitement for the overall vision… rely on your expertise to build a more relevant Japan Map in 2024!

Your commitment to preparing sacrificial concepts for multiple projects has been instrumental… remarkable skill in empathizing with our users.

Thank you for your partnership in our mission to align all teams working on JP cross org.

UX Manager Google Shopping