QuillBot for Chrome is one of Google’s Favorite extension

In December 2023, Google named QuillBot one of their favorite Chrome extensions of the year, applauding its AI‑powered writing features. As the lead designer on the Chrome extension team, I owned both product direction and design team growth—balancing UX vision with real-world impact.

The Challenge

QuillBot Extension had accumulated design and product debt since launch.

  • Seamless integration:

    Extension needed to feel native in Chrome’s toolbar and interfaces like Gmail, Docs, LinkedIn, Slack, and more without feeling like a pop-up app.


  • Feature discoverability:

    Users had access to both Grammar Checker and Paraphraser—but defaulting to simplicity risked burying power features.


  • Scaling design across teams:

    Multiple designers needed to use shared components correctly, consistently, and confidently on extension as well as upcoming apps.



The Challenge

QuillBot Extension had accumulated design and product debt since launch.

  • Seamless integration:

    Extension needed to feel native in Chrome’s toolbar and interfaces like Gmail, Docs, LinkedIn, Slack, and more without feeling like a pop-up app.


  • Feature discoverability:

    Users had access to both Grammar Checker and Paraphraser—but defaulting to simplicity risked burying power features.


  • Scaling design across teams:

    Multiple designers needed to use shared components correctly, consistently, and confidently on extension as well as upcoming apps.



My approach & design leadership

From May 22 to Dec 23, since taking charge of the design team, I started improving the design team usability methods and visual design standards.

UX-Driven Discovery:

  • Used diary studies and site-specific interviews to explore friction in Gmail, Notion, Slack etc. Extensive dogfooding took place with QuillBot employees.

  • Minimized decision fatigue by defaulting to core features and hiding advanced options behind expandable menus. (Hick's Law).

  • We positioned inline suggestions within immediate reach, speeding up correction actions. (Fitts’s Law)


Focus on intuitive interfaces.

  • Integrated Chrome-like UI patterns, e.g. side-drawer pop-up mimicking native feel. (Jakob's Law)

  • Showed only standard paraphrasing initially; unlocked modes like Formal, Concise when interaction began. (Progressive Disclosure)

  • Limited suggestion bubbles to 5–7 items, reducing cognitive burden. (Miller's Law)


Team Culture & Team Culture:

  • Fostered a collaborative design culture with brainstorming and peer reviews.

  • Hosted weekly critiques centered on cognitive-load-aware microcopy, fostering critical thinking and articulation.

  • Team followed a common auto-layout-based visual design style Implemented an Atomic Design‑based component library, slashing version mismatches by ~30%.

Design led initiatives

Multiple design led initiatives were prioritised focusing on user needs and improving usability

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Improving uninstallation survey

Impact, leading to Google Recognition

We morphed QuillBot’s Chrome extension from solid functionality to Google-recognized, user-loved, design-forward greatness—through a strategic mix of UX expertise, research-driven decisions, scalable systems, and team leadership.

  • Users improved 15x from 100k in Feb 2022 to 1.5 million in Dec 2023

  • User ratings improved from 3.9 to 4.4 on Chrome store

  • Uninstallations reduces by 35%

  • Scalable designs paved way for Product A/B testing frameworks

  • 80% feature parity was achieved with webapp for Paraphraser and grammar checker.


What happened till 2025?

  • As of June 2025, we are at 5 million user installs with 4.6 rating on chrome

  • We have launched new AI Assistant that and improved widget

  • Tested new features like AI generation, Tones and toolbox.

  • Launched extensions for Safari and edge based on chrome extension

  • We also expanded our product line to desktop and mobile apps with the total ecosystem having 20+million users


My learnings

  • I shifted from individual designer to design leader, crafting environment where others grow.

  • Realized that guiding through principles rather than micromanaging helps unleash team creativity.
    We have launched new AI Assistant that and improved widget

  • Focus on strategic decision making and tactical design tradeoffs helped us to design at speed, without sacrificing quality


After eight months of design and development work, the app was launched, and the results have been impressive. User engagement has increased by 30%, with an average of 15% more time spent on the app by users. Additionally, the team has reported a 20% increase in app downloads and a 25% increase in in-app purchases.