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Former webOS, Pebble Design Lead, Who Just Left Andy Rubin's Essential, Heads To Google (variety.com)

Posted by msmash on from the musical-chair dept.

Janko Roettgers, writing for Variety: Google has hired a former lead Pebble and webOS designer Liron Damir as the new head of user experience of its Google Home group, which works on products such as Google Home, Chromecast and Google Wifi. Damir announced that he joined Google on LinkedIn this week, writing that he was "super excited and proud to be joining Google... to lead the design of Google Home products." A Google spokesperson confirmed the hire Thursday, but declined to comment further. Most recently, Damir worked as head of UX for Essential, the new startup from Android founder Andy Rubin. Before that, he was VP of design at Pebble, the pioneering smart watch maker that got acquired by Fitbit in late 2016. Before joining Pebble, Damir led the webOS design efforts at HP, and then at LG. webOS was initially developed as a mobile operating system to take on Android and iOS, but HP scrapped these efforts when it realized that it couldn't compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung. The company sold webOS to LG in early 2013, which ended up using the operating system for its smart TVs.

38 comments

  1. Will he adapt? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    WebOS and Pebble were rather praised for their design, however the never really had taken off as well as they hope, but at least the companies had tried. Google is notorious with having fad products that they will dump if they don't meet expectation. This type of business may take some adapting to.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Will he adapt? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      WebOS and Pebble were rather praised for their design, ...

      Wait, what?

      I have no opinion on WebOS, but Pebble's stuff looked like a committee of fifth graders designed it.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Will he adapt? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pebble's stuff looked like a committee of fifth graders designed it.

      Should fit right in at Google

    3. Re:Will he adapt? by Desler · · Score: 1

      Pebble was praised for its designs? Amongst what group of people? All I ever heard was people mocking their designs.

  2. webOS is a really good interface by asliarun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have to say that webOS is an absolute delight to use. Simple, snappy, very easy to use on a TV along with a remote. The optional cursor with the remote working as an "air mouse" is a fairly unconventional notion but actually works quite well too. In fact, i would say that the webOS interfaces found on LG TVs is one of the best user interfaces I have used in a long time. And a very fresh approach to user design. If Liron was the one who conceptualized and designed and implemented this user interface, then more power to him!

    1. Re:webOS is a really good interface by r1348 · · Score: 1

      I owned a Palm Pre 2 and I still have nightmares.

    2. Re:webOS is a really good interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Palm Pre was terrible. WebOS was ahead of its time.

    3. Re:webOS is a really good interface by Plammox · · Score: 1

      Seconded, webOS really is great. Just too bad there's no long term support from LG (stuck with webOS 2.0 on a relatively new TV from 2015).

    4. Re:webOS is a really good interface by puddingebola · · Score: 1

      Why are people always delighted with webOS? Back when HP tried to get into the tablet market with the Touchpad reviews of the UI were mostly positive. Had "real multitasking" before the iPad, etc. Has LG actually done anything with this OS?

    5. Re:webOS is a really good interface by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Because webOS was great compared to the crap small device OSes at the time. Namely PalmOS, WinCE, or EPOC/Symbian.

      PalmOS had like no memory protection it was like MS-DOS. WinCE had several UI limitations. While EPOC/Symbian had a really quirky system API no one liked to write code for.

      Now with iOS and Android it isn't as much of a big deal.

    6. Re:webOS is a really good interface by Desler · · Score: 2

      Huh? That's an interesting alternate history. iOS and Android were two and one years old respectively by the time webOS first came out. Your post seems to falsely imply that webOS was older than them when it wasn't.

    7. Re: webOS is a really good interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      webOS was announced years before release, so a lot of the folks who worked on it thought they were way ahead of the curve on handheld technology. Unfortunately they were not so much ahead as just really late in delivery.

    8. Re:webOS is a really good interface by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Huh? I had a WebOS tablet a couple of years after iOS and Android were released (I already owned an Android phone at the time). WebOS had a clean and well-designed UI and I'd have done more work on it if HP hadn't decided to kill the line completely shortly after I got mine.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re: webOS is a really good interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I worked on webOS. Primary development started in late 2006 / early 2007, right around the iPhone announcement. It might have existed before then, but only as a minimally funded skunkworks type project at best. And then in June 2008 we threw out about half the work and started over because it wasn't good enough (it looked like a crappy version of Android, although Android was pretty crappy itself back in those days).

  3. A number of Google products need love too... by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For instance:

    GMail - I find it ugly and too bland by default.

    Photos - We cant sort within this application! Google, really? Neither can a user separate videos from photos!

    Hangouts - Does anyone still use this app? Where is WhatsApp's competition? I guess all iterations of potential apps were DoA!

    Calendar - It needs a refresh. One cannot copy an event and have it repeated at another date/time! I am glad one can move it by dragging though.

    Am I wrong?

    1. Re: A number of Google products need love too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If there's one thing I use daily that doesn't require shiny bling makeover it's gmail. Function over form any day!!!

    2. Re:A number of Google products need love too... by ebrandsberg · · Score: 2

      If you want to see what "bling" does to an app, get the new Skype for Android. Total suckage. Things you use every day need to be solid, simple, and functional. Please don't give anybody ideas of "refreshes" and bling. You can provide ideas on what needs to be fixed (like the calendar copy idea) but you don't need to rewrite anything to make something better.

    3. Re:A number of Google products need love too... by unixisc · · Score: 1

      On GMail, I find their interface good enough. Only annoyance is the promotional mails that I get, but thankfully, they're not completely junk mail of the type I used to get on Yahoo! mail.

      Photos - agree w/ you on that one. There are a whole lot of music videos that I have, as well as family photos & videos. There is no way to separate them. This is an issue common to both Google & Microsoft. The apps ought to be able to distinguish - maybe by folder location - whether a video is that of Black 'n Blue and should be opened by my music app, or whether it's that of my family and should be opened by Photos. As an aside, Android has too many redundant apps: I just don't see the point of having both Photos and Gallery. Photos are better and enough.

      Hangouts - in my last job, I used since that's what the company used. It was primarily used as a messenger, as well as for video conferencing and screen sharing - the latter can't be done on WhatsApp, which is not a business application. One could use Skype the same way. Android's answer to FaceTime is Duo, but like I mentioned yesterday, I doubt that Android guys will be downloading FaceTime or that Apple users will be downloading Duo.

      Calendar - for work purposes, I used Outlook, so I'd access it from there, and do the copying through Outlook.

    4. Re:A number of Google products need love too... by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      GMail - I find it ugly and too bland by default.

      I'll do one better: Google seems to have this foundational war on e-mail. It's not a letter form anymore, it's more like a chat window. Things aren't put into folders, they're put into 'labels', and while labels may have their benefits, they translate poorly to IMAP implementations. System resources seem to be a secondary consideration as well. While HTML-only Gmail takes a reasonable 44MB of RAM when I checked, the standard Gmail interface takes over 300.

      Photos - We cant sort within this application! Google, really? Neither can a user separate videos from photos!

      The issues with Photos makes sense, actually. The two big features are the AI distinguishing what categories things are in, and the auto backup from cell phones. I don't think Google was going for browser-based Lightroom, though they definitely should have kept Picasa as a thing.

      Hangouts - Does anyone still use this app? Where is WhatsApp's competition? I guess all iterations of potential apps were DoA!

      Whatsapp's competition is Facebook Messenger and garden variety texting. Then again, Google can't really make up their mind. There was Talk, then Hangouts, then Allo and Duo, none of which being 'minimalist', but none of which having a complete set of features, either. Personally, I think it would have been best if, in 2010, RIM charged $1/month for non-Blackberry owners to have a BBM PIN; they would still be relevant and no one else would have been able to make meaningful inroads.

      Calendar - It needs a refresh. One cannot copy an event and have it repeated at another date/time! I am glad one can move it by dragging though.

      Am I wrong?

      Calendar hasn't gotten much of a refresh because its core use case is with its Android integration, which is where lots of their focus has been in general.

      Personally, I have a gut feeling either Damin's contributions will be summarily ignored, or will end up in the worst possible implementations. I'm not much of a Google fan to begin with, but over the last few years I've gotten the vibe that they really don't care much about having the seamless blend of form and function we all ultimately desire; between advertisers, Android, and Gmail, they've got everyone's data and avoiding them is a conscious effort.

  4. #RESIST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    n/t

  5. With that track record... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Google's doomed!

  6. People still use Google? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use croogle, maintained by creimer in his 400 sq. ft. Santa Clara virgin studio apartment.

    1. Re:People still use Google? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      400 sq ft? Does he keep his stuff in there and sleep outside?

  7. I wonder if he is aware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to lead the design of Google Home products

    Is he aware that only an idiot would buy a "Google Home product" and give it access to a network of any type?

    On the second thought, most people seem to be idiots. Never mind. Carry on then.

  8. Sinking ship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like Andy has a problem with a leaky boat.

    I think he needs to give up and go home, he should not be relevant.

    1. Re:Sinking ship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As both of these folks left at the same time and over a month ago. Not sure what kind of problem Rubin has with leaking. Google offer this guy more and the other exec who left was a dumbass with marketing ideas ..that were more than a little off the beating path. But of course folks think that one gets a job at some place like Google and you interview one day and start the next .. he'd probably been talking to them for months and when they offered ... he left his current job which just happened to be Rubin's company. It's how things work in the SFBA. Nothing to see here really.

  9. Make us a palm pre with android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We want a small, thick Android phone, but no-one will make us one.

    Make us a Palm Pre with Android, be revolutionary.

    Is that really too much too ask ?

  10. Re:I have no comment on this story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I know. We are now reading when fucking job postings are filled?

  11. Head of user experience by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Are these the assholes who foist on us monstrosities like Gnome and the Windows 8 desktop?

    1. Re:Head of user experience by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Yes. And none of them lifted a finger against systemd either.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re: Head of user experience by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      You sure are a broken record

    3. Re: Head of user experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Switch to one the many distros that don't use systemd. Or try any if the BSDs, or write your own operating system. In short: just fucking let it go.

    4. Re:Head of user experience by unixisc · · Score: 1

      What does WebOS or the other things this guy has done have to do w/ either Windows 8 or GNOME?

    5. Re: Head of user experience by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      or write your own operating system

      That's what *you* should have done instead of breaking one that was working fine, you kraut asshole.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  12. For those of us who don't live in Silicon Valley by somenickname · · Score: 1

    For those of us who don't live in Silicon Valley, I assume this summary means, "Some guy I've never heard of, who's never done anything I vaguely care about, who used to work for some other guy I've never heard of, has left his company that never made anything important. And now he works for Google."

    Dang, I switched jobs last year and it didn't make the front page of Slashdot. I gotta work on my PR.

  13. Re:For those of us who don't live in Silicon Valle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you haven't heard of Andy Rubin (this guy's, now former, employer), Pebble or WebOS (two of the things he worked on), you are either on the wrong site, or are very young. They have been mentioned on here many times.

    That said, I don't see how this is news-worthy.

  14. Boring opinion : Pebble 2 was ok by RockGrumbler · · Score: 1

    This is good. I've really enjoyed my Pebble 2 and can see the potential for a smart watch that has more functionality, and a long battery life by not needing energy intense screens. It's too bad Pebble went under.