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Google designs its Pixel phones with case use in mind from the beginning. The company says “cases cannot be an afterthought” because about 90% of people use protective phone covers. As such, it designs its products such that cases don’t compromise its look and feel. It began this practice with the Pixel 8 series last year, Google’s director of Industrial Design revealed.
Google’s Pixel design philosophy incorporates case use from the start
In an interview with Inverse, Google’s director of Industrial Design, Claude Zellweger, spoke about various aspects of the Pixel design, including the camera bar. He said that the company believes in a flexible design language that can be adapted to different device categories. Since the camera array remains the only distinctive design element differentiating devices from multiple brands, Google cannot completely redesign it on every model.
However, Zellweger said that “a design language should never be rigid.” A flexible design language allows you to customize certain elements in a way that vest fits a device category. For example, the Pixel Fold’s rear camera bar doesn’t stretch across the rear panel like it does on other Pixels. This is because an “edge-to-edge” camera bar doesn’t look the best on a foldable that opens up to reveal a larger rear side.
“If you have a foldable, it’s a different proposition when you open it up and it becomes a tablet. The camera bar, from edge to edge, doesn’t work very well. It’s only on one side so we created this free-floating element that’s sitting better within the overall shape,” Zellweger said. He joined Google in 2016 to lead the design development of the Daydream headsets before moving to the Pixel team. Zellweger was previously a creative director at HTC.
The Google executive added that its design process involves case usage. “With the Pixel 8, seriously going forward, we’ve begun to design the product with the case together from the beginning,” Zellweger said. Like colors, which are decided during the design stage, case use also is not an afterthought for the company. It wants to make Pixel phones that look great and feel great in hand even when you put a case on it.
Hardware is no longer just a hobby for Google
Making hardware was initially a hobby for Google. However, it is now a critical part of its business. It has firmed dedicated teams to work on hardware design. That reflects on recent Pixel phones which look more refined and better researched upon. While Zellweger didn’t join the Pixel hardware team before the modern era, i.e., the camera bar era, he pointed out a few things about older models.
“When you look back at these [Pixel 1, 2, and 3], the camera placement is kind of arbitrary and wherever the engineering could fit it because we didn’t have the deep engineering design integration that we have today,” he said. Google got serious about Pixel phones starting with the Pixel 4, but it was with the Pixel 6 that the company “decided to lean more into the cameras as a strong part of the Pixel’s industrial design.”
The upcoming Pixel 9 series will share “a lot of this idea of DNA” in terms of design. The new devices will bring some refinements but Google says it is “really important” that it does not jump from one design to another every year. “Our customers actually want that continuity. They want progression — the visual progression needs to follow the technical progression underneath and not zigzag all over the place,” Zellweger added.
While it’s great to see Google considering case use while designing Pixel phones, we hope the company gives as much importance to the durability of the devices. If the phone is strong enough, many people would drop the case to get a real feel of its design. Time will tell how the Pixel 9 series shapes up. The new Pixel flagships are expected to arrive in the second half of the year.