Rachel Been is Expedia's SVP of Design. Previously, she was one of the designers who laid the foundations for Google's Material Design, and has worked across products at Airbnb, Google Home, and Nest. Starting her career as a photojournalist, Rachel brings a unique perspective to product design, grounded in curiosity and craft. On today's show we chat about designing for infinite expressiveness, the tension between craft and efficiency, the power of curiosity over specialisation, and what AI should and shouldn't be able to do.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 02:22 – Rachel's journey from photojournalism to design
• 05:42 – The power of curiosity and being a generalist
• 09:16 – Designing for infinity and infinite expressiveness
• 18:34 – The tension between craft and efficiency in design
• 28:22 – Material Design's impact and evolution
• 35:48 – AI-powered search and building AI products at Expedia
• 42:16 – The future of search and conversational interfaces
• 48:24 – End of show questions

Connect with Rachel
LinkedIn

Selected links from the episode
Expedia in ChatGPT
Carly Ayres' essay on the great design reset.