Overview
As demand for computer scientists continues to increase, big tech companies like Google have to find creative ways to keep the talent pool fresh and deep. We joined Google for this engagement to imagine and create a relatable product for teens to be inspired to pursue careers in Computer Science by way of a Machine Learning experience.
The Problem
The Google Education team wanted to create a fun, simple, relatable experience that would help non-technical users understand the basics of machine learning. The team had already released versions of this initiative, but it wasn’t landing with their target audience, teens in STEM academies.
Our Solution
After working closely with the Google educators, the team identified that a big reason why the curriculum wasn’t landing was due to its desktop-first experience and its dry tone. In an effort to combat both challenges, we designed a mobile-first website experience that used a relatable metaphor to explain the principles of Machine Learning.
In the spirit of the popular HBO comedy, Silicon Valley, we riffed on Hotdog Not Hotdog by creating Pizza Not Pizza–a service that examines an image and if it’s a photo of a pizza, it says “”pizza””, if it’s not a photo of pizza, it says “”not pizza””.
Behind the scenes the creation and training of this model required tens of thousands of images of pizzas–slices and pies, Sicilian, and yes, even deep dish…though you can not convince me that’s pizza…it’s a casserole, people!
