Canva for Google Gemini
Envisioning a deep platform integration
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Concept design
- Prototyping
- Stakeholder alignement
TEAM
- Supergroup Lead
- Group Design Lead
FORMAT
Native integration via MCP
TIMELINE
2 days
Native integration via MCP
TIMELINE
2 days
With a mission to empower the world to design, Canva enables +220 million people in 190 countries to create and communicate visually. Valued at $32 billion and generating $3 billion in annual revenue, its design platform is used by 95% of Fortune 500 companies.
On Canva's side, there were several compelling value adds to contribute to the partnership. Primarily, its recently built model context protocol (MCP) server would enable completely agentic workflows, allowing users to access Canva's capabilities natively inside Gemini and unlocking prompt-driven design creation. And with Canva connected to Gemini as a knowledge source, users would also be able to use their designs—Documents, Sheets, Whiteboards—as context for their prompts and for deep research, making it incredibly easy to connect the dots and drastically improve productivity.
First, I set about ideating on a hypothetical narrative and user flow that demonstrated Canva's capabilities in context, creating a fully interactive prototype that could be dropped into a presentation deck. To do this, I visualised each step of the flow, and finessed the timing and transitions to make the overall composition feel as realistic as possible. And even though the majority of the experience would exist in Gemini, I still wanted to maintain Canva's design integrity by including key visual elements that users would recognise, like the rich previews and design type icons.
Strategic opportunity, shared vision
Canva identified a potential strategic partnership with Gemini as the platform looks to expand its support with various LLMs and agentic workflows. Both also share a vision to democratise creativity, productivity, and access to powerful tools for expression.On Canva's side, there were several compelling value adds to contribute to the partnership. Primarily, its recently built model context protocol (MCP) server would enable completely agentic workflows, allowing users to access Canva's capabilities natively inside Gemini and unlocking prompt-driven design creation. And with Canva connected to Gemini as a knowledge source, users would also be able to use their designs—Documents, Sheets, Whiteboards—as context for their prompts and for deep research, making it incredibly easy to connect the dots and drastically improve productivity.
Intent ≠ outcome
Currently, when Gemini users prompt "Create me a Canva presentation", all they get back is a long list of written instructions explaining how to manually create the design. This interaction is misalined with their intent and expectations—particularly in the context of AI assistants—and was causing untold frustration. We wanted to hone in on this problem and pitch Canva as the ideal pain killer.Visualising the future
The head of Canva’s Ecosystem supergroup was scheduled to discuss a potential partnership with the Gemini team in two days' time, and wanted to present a vision of what a deep integration between the two platforms could look like. I was asked to imagine and create a high-fidelity design concept that could be used during the presentation for maximum impact.First, I set about ideating on a hypothetical narrative and user flow that demonstrated Canva's capabilities in context, creating a fully interactive prototype that could be dropped into a presentation deck. To do this, I visualised each step of the flow, and finessed the timing and transitions to make the overall composition feel as realistic as possible. And even though the majority of the experience would exist in Gemini, I still wanted to maintain Canva's design integrity by including key visual elements that users would recognise, like the rich previews and design type icons.