Cooper

Designers on Wheels

Susan Dybbs — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:55:51 -0800

For those of you who don't know, Thursday was Bike to Work Day. Every year thousands of Bay Area commuters ditch their cars, bus passes, and walking shoes to zoom down the streets commuting in massive pelotons to work. As they often ride to work anyway, the Cooper team joined the festivities, riding in style, sporting machines for speed, function, and fashion.

IxD in Review: What is the Designer's Role?

Nikki — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:00:00 -0800

From the Perspective of Cooper U Student & Intern, Nikki Knox

Last month, company executives, engineers, product managers, and UX designers stepped away from their demanding schedules to experience the design process and philosophy of Cooper U in the April Interaction Design class. As a designer with a background in healthcare architecture and medical products, Cooper U's qualitative-based curriculum felt familiar in a way that resonated with the core intentions that motivated me to become a designer in the first place. What wasn't familiar, however, were the tools that Cooper U provided to guide the creative process, and the innovative ways they invited class participation.

One of the more lighthearted design tools Cooper U introduced is the "Pretend it's Magic" exercise, designed to spark creativity in unexpected ways. Through this exercise, our group explored "disappearing" TV entertainment modules that only leave a 3D projection to engage with. We also came up with a screening system that gets jealous when other viewing devices are present (so no more watching TV and using your laptop at the same time - it might make your program angry!). These ideas may seem silly, yet they challenge both designers and company executives alike to overcome self-imposed limitations and reconsider the range of possibility.

In addition, more in-depth design tools, such as Personas, provide a way to keep the end-user involved in the product from start to finish. They embody the user's actual behaviors, goals and environments. For example, our team's persona, DeAndra, is a 35-year-old photographer from Portland, Oregon. Her quote, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I have many eyes," summarizes her perspective and beliefs about the photos she takes. She played a vital role in guiding our mobile Photo Book app that we designed as part of the class. Features such as editing and tagging were designed with her in mind, helping us avoid designs based on our own preferences and experiences.

These are merely two examples from the many design tools that Cooper U provided during the course. The curriculum was designed to foster curiosity, create a sense of community, and invite storytelling based on design experience. Therefore, we could freely reflect on our own design processes and inquire about those of others, which enabled us to learn from Cooper as well as each other.

Of all the conversations we had, it was the questions about the designer's role that intrigued me the most. In comparison to architecture, Interaction Design is a new and rapidly expanding field; designers and companies both struggle with determining the relationship between design and business. How do engineers and designers work together? What can company executives contribute to the process? How are product managers and marketing departments influencing design? Cooper U provided communication as well as design tools that explored these questions.

Ultimately, the practicum wasn't about providing standardized answers but about providing a safe platform upon which these questions could be boldly explored. The class reinforces my belief that design extends far beyond implementing creative ideas. The designer's role is that of facilitator - navigating people, resources and ideas through a complicated web of possibilities and responsibilities. Thank you to Cooper U for providing a process that understands and supports this vital role!

Upcoming IxD (Interaction Design) Courses:
June 19-22, 2012
July 17-20, 2012

sCoop: Week of April 30

Jason Csizmadi — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:08:26 -0800

Life at Cooper

Cooper recently brought back the Friday Afternoon Social Hour! Everyone enjoyed Suzy's seriously strong sangria and tasty tapas, and the great conversations in this all around good time. If this sounds like how you'd like to wrap up the work week, join us! We are currently looking for a Business Development Manager.

See more of our life at Cooper on our Tumbler.

Sketch 2.0 Released

*Download the sample .Sketch file from my Dribbble account.

Sketch 2.0 is a new Mac application designed to be what Adobe Fireworks has struggled to become: the defacto standard for interface design. With a toolset targeting the professional user interface and icon designer, Sketch seems to be headed down the right path.

Sketch is not without its issues and may not be mature enough to replace Photoshop or Fireworks as of the version 1 release; however it's an excellent start and well worth your time to checkout.

Several of us at Cooper are very excited by Sketch, so expect a more detailed review soon. In the meantime, checkout Sketch for yourself.

The Monoprice Graphics Tablet

*Video Monoprice Graphics Tablet line quality by Ray Frenden.

In the world of drawing tablets, there is Wacom and...umm...well...nobody else. That's what I thought before I read Ray Frenden's review of the inexpensive Monoprice graphic tablet "The Little Monoprice Graphics Tablet That Could."

With a starting price of under $50 for a 10X6.25 inch graphic drawing tablet, the Monoprice tablet seems too good to be true. After reading Ray's review and a quick twitter search of other Monoprice tablet users, I've become a believer and am seriously considering replacing my Wacom Bamboo tablet.

Checkout the Monoprice tablets for yourself; it just might save you a couple hundred bucks.

Stay up-to-date with your favorite web service feeds

If you're a Basecamp, Github, Dropmark, or Dribbble user, you might find Feeds interesting. Feeds lives in your menu bar monitoring your favorite web services, notifying you when new content is posted.

Dialoggs enters private beta

Dialoggs is a new web service that just entered it's private beta phase. Dialoggs describes it's self as a combination of Twitter, Facebook's privacy controls, and Tumbler's multimedia features.

Dialoggs allows you to follow people and send public and private messages just like in Twitter. What separates Dialoggs from Twitter, and what I'm most excited about, is Dialoggs ability to have long form conversations. Not having to worry about how many characters I have left? Priceless!

If your interested in learning more about Dialoggs, checkout "Introducing Dialoggs."

Follow the creators on Twitter to win invite codes to Dialoggs: @drewwilson, @ammmir

Dialog.gs Website

Interacting with media across multiple devices

With the rise of mobile devices, more and more I need to be able to move files from my desktop to my mobile devices. Apple, Google, and Microsoft, along with several other third parties, have developed solutions but nothing that delivers a truly seamless user experience. Interaction designer Ishac Betran, in his article "Watch This Ingenious UI Idea For Dragging Files From Your Phone To Computer" details an elegant seamless drag-n-drop solution.

iPad Keyboard Prototype

Another interesting concept is the "iPad Keyboard Prototype" created by Daniel Chase Hooper. The video demonstrates a simple, intuitive way for simplifying text editing on the iPad. Instead of tap-and-hold to edit text, the user can swipe the cursor around the text block to quickly edit the text.

App pick of the week: Track 8

Track 8 brings the Metro experience to your iPad in a slick music player, allowing you to browse your music in an immersive visual experience.

Checkout Track 8 for yourself.

Elevating the brand and visual strategy with the experience workshop

Nick Myers — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:14:19 -0800

Defining and creating a memorable experience for your customers is no easy task. Product owners and development teams can easily rattle off ideas to designers about what features are necessary to stay competitive. But if you ask them to share their vision for the overall more subtle emotional aspects of the experience, they often get quiet or resort to the familiar old UI clichés of "simplicity, intuitiveness, etc." This means that you often start your design work with less insight than you need to drive visual and interaction design.

Enter the experience workshop - a collaborative meeting and setup where clients can really talk about what a great experience can feel like among a sea of inspirational images, digital interfaces, products, services, brands, cars, textures, and more. Companies that build digital products and services are engaging in a new level of competition; it's no longer good enough to deliver a usable product. Our designs must reach an aspirational vision that elevates the experience beyond mere usability, and a visual, collaborative workshop pushes people to explore and discuss the possibilities.

The workshop helps teams discuss what attributes are inherent in these other experiences that are meaningful to the experience they're defining. After a process of prioritization and discussion, the end result is often a huge cloud of ideas and words that sit on a spectrum from a poor experience to an ideal experience. The examples aren't what's important for our output. We collect insight from the discussion, the words, that help us define the ideal experience.

The workshop brings teams together to learn and collaborate on the experience. What I love most about this activity is the connections made from people across different teams that can relate on a personal level because of their shared experiences. It's not just a visioning exercise for the future; it's a team-building event.

Check out the above video to see a glimpse of the workshop in action. And if you want to learn more about how to conduct a workshop and integrate this new approach into your company, you can sign up for an upcoming Cooper U Visual Interface Design course. In fact, we have just a few spots left in next week's class (May 7-8), if this post left you inspired...

Thinking Outside of the Box

The Editors — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:08:00 -0800

The American Red Cross of Greater Columbus Shares Their Experience of UX Bootcamp

Last month, 26 designers, engineers, and product managers crammed their brains with Cooper's design methodology and put those learnings into practice designing mobile app concepts for volunteers of the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus. The nonprofit was involved all four days, let our students conducts design research interviews with their volunteers, and gave stellar critique during the final presentations of the teams. We asked Sarah Lewan, Coordinator of Volunteer Resources for the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus, to tell us about her team's experience of our inaugural UX Bootcamp. Here's what she shared with us...

What was most surprising about this experience?

The most surprising thing to me and my team was how involved the students would actually be in developing a solution for an app. We had no idea the scope of this project and Bootcamp until the actual workshops began.

What did you learn about the design process as you watched the students go through UX Bootcamp?

I am not a designer. I am a volunteer coordinator. So this was definitely VERY exciting for me. I learned so much about techniques and tools to use in the UX process. I believe that I can use some of these techniques in the development of other projects and processes that do not have to deal with design as well.

What stood out to you about the mobile application concepts that the teams came up with?

All of the teams worked VERY hard on their designs. It was interesting to see the difference on the designs, based on the demographics of the team. I loved the fact that all of the teams came to the Bootcamp knowing little to none about the American Red Cross and our programs, but left becoming advocates for the organization.

Did the concepts the teams presented inspire any ideas?

We were all inspired by the plans that the teams developed. We think that there are many portions of all three that we can adapt and use within the Red Cross.

What stood out to you about the final presentations and judging portion of the event?

The final presentations were awesome! It was so amazing to watch these teams come together from day one and finally end up with a finished produce. I saw so many transformations in the design and initial concepts. I witnessed teams grow and learn from each other. I witnessed adults learn to think "outside of the box".

The judging was particularly difficult. All of the teams worked so hard. But in the end, there was one that just captured the essence of what ClubRED (the Red Cross of Greater Columbus volunteer organization) was all about.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience?

This was one of the most amazing education experiences I have witnessed. I didn't want the week to end. I would love to be involved in more experiences like this!

If you're curious to know more about that inaugural UX Bootcamp...

Check out the final concepts pitched by the teams, this post by our student, Amber Howard, or these photos of the magic in action. We'll be announcing a new bootcamp soon; email us at CooperU@Cooper.com if you'd like information.

sCoop: Week of April 23

Martina Maleike — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:42:33 -0800

New Hires!

Cooper has expanded its force this week with two new hires, Nate Clinton and Nikki Knox.

Nate Clinton comes to Cooper from Thomson Reuters, where he designed and developed software tools for investment professionals. In his past lives, he was an engineer and product manager for a successful Bay Area start-up (StarMine), as well as a research goon at the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC. He is known to play glockenspiel in the nation's preeminent Star Wars Cantina Band.

Nikki Knox is our new design education intern and her knowledge and experience will be contributing to the further development of CooperU courses. Originally from Kansas, Nikki has a background in design education, healthcare architecture, medical equipment design, and ethnographic methodology. Her design philosophy and process will be a very useful addition to our education team. Outside of the office, Nikki enjoys running, backpacking, and local restaurants.

We are very excited to have them join the Cooper team and use their unique skills to make our work even better.

Upcoming CooperU Courses

There are several CooperU courses coming up in the next few weeks. Register now before they sell out!

Visual Design - May 7-8, 2012

Interaction Design - June 19-22, 2012

Interaction Design - July 17-20, 2012

Visual Design - July 23-24, 2012

See the full schedule of courses.

Cooper UX Bootcamp: A Firsthand Account

Attendees of the Cooper UX Bootcamp in Columbus, Ohio from Atomic Object have shared their firsthand accounts of the experience on their company blog, in full detail. Check out what they learned and get a look at the fruits of their labor.

Designing Around an Experience by Paul Hart

Cooper's UX Bootcamp Takeaways by Kedron Rhodes

More Takeaways from Cooper UX Bootcamp by Brittany Hunter

New and Interesting

Google Drive makes its debut this week. It's a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all your stuff. Integrated seamlessly within the overall Google experience, this tool could prove extremely useful for those of us who not only work in the office, but are collaborating in airports, cafes, on the train, or at the kitchen table. For those of us who enjoy using Google Docs for sharing files, this extension of that concept will create a comprehensive experience for managing and sharing all your files in the Google cloud.

Valve's employee handbook also caught our attention this week. "A fearless adventure in knowing what to do when no one's there telling you what to do", this illustrated guide for new hires feels like an old treasure map. We love the illustrations and comics that are scattered throughout. This book certainly helps to takes the nervous tension of being a 'newbie' down a few notches.

Sensubrush, a true painting experience for the iPad, combines a unique artist brush stylus with various painting and drawing apps to create beautiful artwork and sketches. The brush stylus makes it easy to paint or freeform sketch with lighter, more detailed strokes. Alternatively, you can close the brush end of the stylus and use the rubber stylus for a thicker stroke. Very useful.

Need some new fonts to freshen your typeface collection? Ten Dollar Fonts is a collection of, you guessed it, fonts that cost only $10 each! What a steal for these beautifully drawn faces. The visual designers at Cooper are loving it.

The Descriptive Camera works like a regular camera, except instead of spitting out a photo, it prints the metadata about the content of the photo. This is a really useful technology that can be eventually combined with current digital cameras, which only record metadata related to the camera's settings, location, date, and time. Imagine being able to search through an enormous library of images by the subject of the photo! This prototype prints out the metadata, but eventually the creator plans for it to be appended to the photograph on the fly, so it can be searchable later.

And the week of April 23 concludes with our very own, Mr. Alan Cooper, giving a talk at The Next Web Conference 2012 in Amsterdam. We can't wait to hear all the details.

Have a happy weekend!

Stay inspired with Evernote

Jason Csizmadi — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:51:24 -0800

As long as I can remember, I've maintained an library of inspirational imagery. I'm always consuming visually appealing material, so if I find something, I grab it, whether it's an interesting font, photograph, texture, color palette, icon, or UX pattern. Growing as a visual designer means keeping up with the ever-shifting trends and visual innovations out there in the world, and a library of inspiration can be a place to stockpile the state-of-the-art.

Just about anything can inspire visual creativity. Don't limit yourself to obvious things like icons or UI elements; branch out and explore non-digital works like paintings and illustrations. Over the years, I've collected thousands of these interesting and inspiring artifacts, including fonts, photographs, textures, color palettes, and even code snippets. As my collection grew, though, it became increasingly difficult to maintain it and keep it useful. Enter Evernote.

Why Evernote?

Evernote excels at nearly everything I was looking for in a digital asset management application: it makes content collection, tagging, and sharing a snap. But Evernote's secret awesomeness is in search: it can instantly find text not only in tags, titles, and notes, but also, using very accurate OCR, within the images themselves.

Search inside images

Suppose I'm working on a contact form and I want some inspiration from the outstanding examples in my library. Instead of hunting and pecking for interesting form elements amongst the hundreds of images I've clipped from around the web, I can search using text I think might be included in the images I want. Typing "First Name", for example, finds all of my clips with that text inside the image or its metadata. This is a killer feature - it makes quickly searching my library a whole lot less painful, and also frees me from needing to exhaustively tag every single artifact as I go.

If you find yourself running the same searches over and over, Evernote can save it for you as a shortcut. (See this great article on Evernote power searching for more tricks.)

Dead simple content capture

To build your inspiration library, grabbing content has to be dead simple - otherwise it's a chore and it doesn't get done! Fortunately, Evernote has super fast capture tools for pretty much any situation. In a browser, take your pick from: Chrome, Firefox and Safari extensions. Even Internet Explorer gets the love (install the Windows desktop client to get the IE extension).

With the recent acquisition of Skitch, capturing extends beyond browsers to any screen content. With Skitch, you can screen-grab, annotate, and send to Evernote in just a few quick steps. (Here's a video demo of skitch in action.) Skitch works on your Mac, iPad or Android device.

Disclaimer: I worked on the design of the Skitch icon.

Your inspiration library, everywhere

One of Evernote's key strengths is being able to access all your content on any device. Apart from the desktop clients, Evernote has an excellent web interface. In many ways, I prefer the web version - it's a simpler front-end. It's great when I need quick access to my inspiration library.

The Evernote iPhone and iPad apps are some of the best on the iOS platform, hands down. They are free, and offer everything that is great about the desktop and web versions in a mobile form factor. Evernote has an Android app, as well.

More Evernote quick tips

A few other random pieces of advice for those of you using Evernote to capture the inspiration around you:

It's a good idea to organize and tag stuff as you enter them. You'll thank yourself later.
Re-title notes to make them more content specific. Titles like "DSC00003" will end up making finding things later more difficult.
Keep well structured folder stacks.
Use the Saved Searches feature.
Another quick way to capture: on a Mac, drag and drop items onto the dock icon.

Go get some inspiration

I've focused on the virtues of Evernote, but whichever application you use, building and maintaining a personal inspiration library of visual materials can be an extremely valuable tool for any designer.

Here are some places I go when I want to find new material for my library:

http://www.behance.net/
http://pinterest.com/
http://ffffound.com/
http://dribbble.com/
http://www.thebestdesigns.com/
http://losttype.com/browse/
From thenextweb.com: 97 places to find design inspiration

What about you?

How do you use Evernote? Any fresh ideas for maintaining a personal inspiration library? Do tell!

Design Collaboration & Communication: a student's perspective

Kimberly Harvey — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:00:00 -0800

As a first time student at Cooper U, I was wowed by Cooper's Design Collaboration & Communication session. I was able to dive back into the product development process and carefully examine how the way teams communicate directly informs what kind of experience is created. Here are highlights of what I'll be using for my projects going forward.

Lesson 1: Meetings Don't Have to Suck

I have been through the grinder with teams of very capable, intelligent people. Sometimes, we ended up feeling confused, shot down, angry, and stuck even though all the elements of productivity seem to be right in front of us. So, what went wrong? In Cooper U's Design Collaboration and Communication session, we learned that these issues usually are not solved just by changing the meeting stakeholders or the design. The challenges are often in making ideas heard and effectively receiving information from others - the fundamentals of communication. Our teachers, Kendra Shimmell and Stefan Klocek taught us how to deal with conflict, stop communication gaps, and eliminate misunderstandings in tangible, useful ways.

Lesson 2: Never Ask "So, What Do You Think?"

Feedback can easily become a haphazard free-for-all about every aspect of the work. Here are a few strategies out of this tangential abyss:
• Keep feedback on user flow and visual language separate. Asking people to think about both at the same time is cognitively difficult and reduces the overall quality of their feedback.
• Make sure your team knows the questions you would like answered from the start. Sounds simple, but that's often not often specifically clarified.
• Keep user/interaction flows conceptual and sketch-like to focus stakeholders on these elements and minimize the distraction of visually-rich examples.
• When visual elements are in review, start with parts and pieces like the buttons, color palette, and icons, as individual elements focus stakeholders attention on details like color, mood, and shape.

Lesson 3: Taking a Step Back Helps You Leap Forward

As I found out the hard way in one session activity, it is so easy to assume each team member has the same vision. After all, we were briefed together, right? After 20 minutes of getting nowhere with a design solution, our group realized everyone had a different interpretation of what we were trying to accomplish. How could we possibly come up with one solution with so many different interpretations? It was such a simple reflection, and yet so easily overlooked. Spending a few minutes at the beginning of each meeting to restate previous agreements or intentions can help eliminate assumptions and create the same starting point. When a meeting ends, each member should have a clear idea about their responsibilities for the next step. In Kendra's words, each meeting should begin with a quick recap of the "previous episode" and end with a "coming attraction".

Lesson 4: "Empathy; It's Not Just for Users"

Mary Kuris, a fellow Cooper U participant, nailed it when she stated "Empathy: It's not just for users!" While a developer, business executive, and designer might have different objectives, they are all trying to get to the same goal. But on a multi-disciplinary team, we cannot simply live behind our own set of lenses. Developers should learn what designers are observing in research, and designers should watch the developer's problem-solving process. The earlier everyone shares their focus, the easier it is to establish a shared vision. Establish a common ground where all parties are able to weave separate ideas together into a tangible solution.

As a graduate student and freelancer, this session gave me useful, clear, and distinct solutions to communication challenges in a broad range of environments. I now have better tools to recognize crucial gaps, identify what needs to change, and understand how I can change it. I have already applied the tactics in my current group projects, and I look forward to taking Cooper U's Interaction Design course this summer.

Cooper U's Next Design Communication & Collaboration Workshop: July 25-26

Registration is open for the July 25-26 workshop. And if those dates don't work for you, but you'd like to be notified of future workshops, just send a note to CooperU@Cooper.com.

The sCoop: Week of April 16

Jason Csizmadi — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:30:33 -0800

New Instagram iPad app Iris

Last week Instagram was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars and this week Iris an excellent new Instagram iPad app is released. Iris is a fun easy way to experience your Instagram photo's on the iPad. If your an Instagram user it's a must have.

Download Iris - Follow on Twitter

Dropmark

Dropmark is a new web service that allow you to create and share collections. The collections can contain all types of media elements by using a simple drag and drop interface. Dropmark is designed to make easy for individuals to invite friends or colleges to the collections for quick and easy collaboration. Dropmark is a great collaboration tool for design teams who need to share mock-ups, documents or inspiration.

Checkout Dropmark.com for more information

FoxTrot Pad Pack #1-3

FoxTrot created Bill Amend just released his comic strip to the iBooks store using the iBooks Author publishing tool Apple released earlier in the year. For $1.99 you can buy 1 of 3 Pad Packs. Each Pack contains about 100 strips that are designed for quick consumption.

FoxTrot for iBooks

The Rise of Interactive eBooks

With the popularity of the iPad and other tablets, we are on the cusp of a digital publishing revolution or at the very least a major reinvention on how digital content is published. Checkout UX Magazine great article on the Interactive eBook Apps: The Reinvention of Reading and Interactivity

The Smashing Book #3

I've always been a big fan of Smashing Books and the "Smashing Book #3" looks like it's going to be a good one. The book is slated to be released at the end of April so I've been pretty religiously watching for it's release.

Preorder "Smashing Book #3"

If you're interested in learning how the cover was created, check out Veerle Pieters blog post. "The Smashing Book #3" cover design

Fontcase CS Plugin

The FontShop plugin (BETA) provides a simple way to try out any FontShop font directly inside your own artwork. The plugin allows designers to experiment with font variations, and to show different typographic options to their clients before actually purchasing anything.

Download the Beta version

Transforming UX training

Amber Howard — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:55:05 -0800

Fitting a sixteen-week user experience course into a four-day bootcamp is somewhat akin to fitting the ocean into a paper cup. Magicians make such promises and we show up to see the seemingly impossible feat, hoping to be amazed, and walk away in awe.

Twenty-six of us did walk away in awe by the end of Cooper's UX Bootcamp held March 26-29 in Columbus, Ohio. Career changers, designers, businessmen, project managers, and educators from startups, agencies, big corporations, and colleges spent four days learning key UX skills and competing in teams to design a mobile app for the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus' ClubRED volunteers. Though our intentions for attending were practical and valid in their own right, we gained more than we ever imagined, learning how to collaborate, communicate, and truly connect to create meaningful and successful products.
Photo courtesy of Paul J. Hart

Despite the competitive framework, early on someone ventured, "If we work together, we'll find out more than if we split up and conceal our findings. I want the Red Cross to have a really hard time choosing among our final pitches. If you're up for doing this together, raise your hand." Many raised both hands!

The large group collaborated on stakeholder interviews, personas development, and experience activity targets. Through the process, we became more than colleagues; we became friends. We understood where our teammates were coming from and how to play to each others strengths. The products we came up with were by-products of our investments in each other's growth.

In an informal conversation, ClubRED representatives expressed the need to motivate young adults to participate and donate. Rather than assume what motivates young adults, we asked directly in research interviews with ClubRED volunteers. Soon, we realized we were asking the wrong question; motivation was not the issue, it was the limited opportunities to help -- if sorting and lifting boxes of emergencies supplies wasn't for them, how else could they pitch in?

Our group's interviewer said, "I used to think research was hard and not worth the effort, but after five minutes in there [with the ClubRED members], I'm having a change of heart. That was really easy...and humbling. Our company should do this more often."

Conducting guerrilla research enabled us to understand the perspectives of diverse stakeholders and respectfully align everyone's interests. We didn't just practice UX skills, we learned to believe -- in the process of finding out rather than assuming, in our ability to develop something that makes a difference, and in the benefits of remaining humble and inclusive throughout the process.

Even so, the group split into competitive teams, each focusing on an unique approach for the product. Wrangling everything into a story, or a scenario of use, was our first task, but that was easier said than done. Sharing our independent storyboards was like reading The Lorax out loud and with every page turn, someone calling out, "What does that have to do with Green Eggs and Ham?!" We had too many storylines and were lost in the quantity and roughness of our storyboards. Photo courtesy of Paul J. Hart

Over lunch, we devised a plan: put everything on the wall and organize the story by beginning, middle, and end moments of an event. We collectively oohed and aahed as we stepped back from the wall and saw the big picture of our narrative emerge. It was all there all along, we just needed a way to see it.
Photo courtesy of Paul J. Hart

We then quickly streamlined the scenario, identified signature interactions, and delegated production responsibilities. Though we were designing a practical ClubRed Connect product, we really sculpted a delightful experience for ClubRED members. We learned to tell stories that connected core values and stories that matter.

Just before presenting, I could see the wonder and awe on everyone's faces. We were proud of our ideas and eager to share them. We came expecting to witness magic and instead became magicians.
Photo courtesy of Paul J. Hart

We left the bootcamp with new friendships, hope for making a difference, and strategies to sculpt delightful experiences. The UX Bootcamp isn't just training, it is a transformative experience.

Storytelling that inspires and delivers vision: Lessons from Google Glass

Stefan Klocek — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:06:57 -0800

Telling visionary stories takes more than great tech, it takes imagination, warmth and a devotion to showing a world made better by your inventions.

News of Google's Project Glass lit up web chatter of the design and tech community. On the one hand it was a provocative leap forward, Google stepping boldly toward hardware that is category defining, and on the other showing a vision of the future that is largely uninspiring.

The biggest problem with Glass isn't the potential loss of serendipity, nor the messy distractions, how to deal with all the info noise, the complications of making it real, or even the geeky hardware acting as a socially awkward cue that you might not be really paying attention.

We'll need to work all this out, but let's talk about the Google's vision for this amazing tech. Watch the vision video and you see interactions that will all be familiar: Siri like natural language recognition and commands, location and time notifications, weather forecasting, real-time text and video chat, GPS mapping and location sharing, checking in, sharing photos to social networks, etc... There is a subtle shift in stance, from a more sovereign interaction to one that is more transient. With phones we have a more explicit intentional interaction, Glass is more of a dip-in-and-out of the digital experience. Instead pulling out your phone to read your twitter feed for the whole 20 minute commute home, Glass has been envisioned as more of a light technology augmentation to the real world.

But there's little that's emotionally resonant. It feels like a demonstration of how you'd do all the stuff you do on your iPhone today in your Glass tomorrow. The focus is on performing tasks that highlight features. It comes across like a technology searching for an application.

I don't mean to be down on the tech. When I first saw it I was really excited about the possibilities. This is groundbreaking technology making the screen fully portable and hands free, it's about liberating yourself from the effort required to interact with a phone. Of enhancing your interactions with the world around you. Google's got their engineers making really cool stuff, but when it comes to imagination or emotional resonance; telling a story that makes you connect with and desire what they are making, it's just not there.

Let's look at ways the storytelling could have changed more effectively invite us to imagine a future that's better with Glass.

Helpful insights beyond the moment

Pushing the local forecast into your eye every time you look out the window seems annoying and obnoxious. Technology is pushing it's way into your experience.

Apple shows the same need for insight into weather, but it's prompted by the user who asks about the weather in a city she's clearly packing to visit. The value of the information is greater to the traveller who can't just look out the window and get a pretty good idea about the local weather. By giving her a forecast for New York the phone is more helpful, it's giving her information at a moment where she can make the most use of it. We connect with the experience because we know how difficult it can be to arrive at a destination where we've packed the wrong clothes. It's worth noting that Apple doesn't even show you the results, they don't have to, you fill in the details yourself.

The warmth of connection

Next up Google shows your friend reaching out to see if you want to hang out. Sweet right? But no, it feels like you're forced to translate everything into text instead of simply using your voice to communicate. In the Glass interface chat's a silent activity with beeps and bleeps for feedback. What if instead you could simply chat, you know, with your voice, it could still be asynchronous, it doesn't need to be a phone call. Your voice can also be parsed into text, but giving you both allows for a richer deeper connection. You get the warmth and excitement in your friend's voice, not a text message you have to read.

Thinking a little bit ahead

As you head into the subway Google let's you know the subway's not running. Drat. You've already hoofed it here, now your only option is to walk.

How much more helpful if Glass knows that you usually catch the 6 and tells you that service has been suspended before leaving home. This gives you a chance to grab your bike instead.

Setting your hands free

Speaking of bikes, how did bike riding NOT make it into the video?

Walking is an activity slow enough to stop and pause to check directions. Biking is fast and to do it safely requires both hands. Glass frees your hands up.

Getting a little heads-up display action letting you know your speed and your distance covered would be a great augmentation to the ride.

Helping you remember the important things

Reminders are helpful, but hardly the stuff of great narrative. Google shows setting a reminder to buy tickets to a show. Meh. I mean sure it's something you'd want to remember, but as a story there's little to connect with.

Apple's not all that much better, the girl who's running asks Siri to remind her to call Chris when she gets home. Her speed clearly makes it harder for her to type a reminder, and with Siri she can save one without breaking her stride, but it's so generic we don't really connect. Why? Because saving a reminder with your voice is technologically difficult, and doing it well has taken some serious engineering. but really it's about as exciting as watching someone write a list. The magical experience of reminders is when they help you remember the thing you'd have otherwise forgotten, and maybe picking something that would be a real shame to miss.

Walking up to your front door and getting a reminder to call dad and wish him a happy birthday? Now that's something we can all connect to and see the value.

Making location awareness magic

Next up Google takes us to Strand bookstore. Glass makes sure you know arrived by pushing the location to your eye.

It's this kind of demonstration that seems like a gratuitous use of technology. Isn't the big red signage enough of a confirmation that you've arrived?

Duplicating the busy information density we experience in an urban environment isn't an experience you'd really want to sign up for. If you wanted to go seriously visionary why not propose a not-too-distant future where all the signs and advertisements screaming for your attention have been removed. The beauty and dignity of architecture is preserved as the signage is moved into our smart devices like Glass. Then pushing the bookstore name to me becomes helpful.

So next there's an opportunity to interact with with this guy.

But you don't take it. You ask your Glass eyepiece instead, it gives you directions for walking 20 feet. There's a rosy picture of the future. No more interactions with strangers, no basic self sufficiency.

There's a few ways Google could have taken this to make it more compelling.

Make the store unbelievably busy so that it would be a long wait till you could ask someone for the location of the music section, at least then you're not being anti-social you're just resourceful. But still, bookstores have some of the most dependable signage, finding the right section isn't really all that hard.

What if instead, you could walk into the supermarket and as you walk the isles Glass uses your location and shopping list to simply pop-up items for you to grab from the shelf? Now you're doing something you can't really do today. It's helpful, and kind of cool. There's no way you could ask the cashier to show you where all the items on your shopping list are located. With Glass shopping list assistance you're able to walk into a store you've never visited, grab everything on your shopping list which happens to have been updated by your partner just a moment ago, and leave, sure that you've got everything you need.

Continuing in the bookstore Google shows you checking to see if your friend has arrived at the bookstore yet. No you don't just walk out to the street or wait for him to come grab you, you use Glass to seek his location and it tells you he's half a block away.

Creepyness aside, it's not saving you from a lot of work or discomfort. You could have just stepped out to wait for your pal on the street. Just cause you can do it doesn't mean it's inspiring or visionary. Location awareness of other people is a hard thing to do right. Even with friends there's lots of privacy issues, and anyone who's seriously tried to make apps that leverage the power of tracking has ended up with low adoption or swift negative reactions.

Moving on you follow your buddy to a nearby coffee truck. Your first instinct is to check in. Seriously? OK, maybe Google needed to show it to compete with Foursquare, but come on, this isn't particularly engaging for us viewers.

Also, one day in the future you'll still need to manually check in? If checking in is your thing, can't it just be something background and automatic, or at least less of a process? In the Glass vision it would be the same amount of work to do it with your phone.

Improving connections

So you get a cup of joe and then part ways with Paul.

Sure there's a cut or two to edit out the stuff that's not showing off Glass, but this makes the story mostly about you using your friend Paul to find a good cup of coffee which is something you could have just messaged him about. The heavy focus on showing off the technology has robbed the story of its humanity. First you didn't chat with the bookstore clerk, then you only meet up with a pal to get insider info. You seem like a cold jerk.

Apple takes a totally different approach to telling the story with Facetime. The phone is used to bridge the gap, to overcome the barriers of physical space.

The phone frames the entire interaction but instead of getting in the way it falls to the background. You quickly find yourself transported into a deeply intimate moment, the story connects instantly, and you empathize with the people and appreciate how the technology makes this kind of emotional connection possible. The people here clearly care for one another and value spending this moment together.

After parting ways you come across a cool piece of street art. You want to share it and in a second can capture the image and upload it.

The process is simple, simpler and easier than pulling out a camera. It's effortless and really shows a sweet way to capture images. Here again the magic of the tech is clear, but the story fails. Street art is hip, but people are what matters, humans are innately drawn to faces.

What about grabbing a few photos of your buddy while hanging out?

And how cool would it be if it auto recognized your friend and added the pictures to his image stream too?

The last scene is easily the most enchanting. It feels a bit contrived, but we're willing to overlook it because it actually shows how this technology might bring us closer together.

It's one way video chat at first, and because there's no camera looking at your face your friend can't see you. What's the next best thing? Sharing your view.

It's a delightful ending for an otherwise uninspiring story. But it didn't need to be that way. When we tell stories, especially around a future shaped by new technology it's important to keep the focus on people. Our gadgets and tools aren't the point, they are means, not the ends. Every twist and turn in the story should help us see a world that is made better, not just different. When you present a vision, strive to deliver a story with deep emotional resonance. We don't need the technology to be perfect, or the applications mindblowing, but we do need to see through it to the deeper more essential need, that is our desire to be connected, to have meaning and share life with one another.

Delivering enchanting experiences

A final thought. An Apple commercial for Siri shows a girl on a roadtrip gazing up into the night sky and wondering what the Orion constellation looks like.

Siri delivers a nifty image.

Google, Glass was made to best this! Looking into bright glowing phone to try to match it against the night sky would be a terrible experience.

With Glass you simply look skyward. Glass can magically connect the stars for you.

Now that's the way to learn about the night sky.

The sCoop: Week of April 9

Jason Csizmadi — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:00:57 -0800

Prototyping at Rock Health

This week, consultants from Cooper met with folks at RockHealth to discuss prototyping. Jim Dibble, Faith Bolliger, Peter Duyan, and Martina Maleike talked about tools available for creating both low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes. Prototypes are tools to foster communication around the proposed product. So, before deciding what type of prototype to build, you need to ask yourself who's the audience and what kind of communication do you want to foster?

Prototypes can be used to communicate your product vision to stakeholders, investors, or your internal team. Prototypes can also be used to gather information from users and potential users. And finally, you can use prototypes to prove to yourself that the interaction in your head actually makes sense when expressed digitally.

In any case, you want to prototype just enough to foster the conversation you want to have with your audience. Low-fidelity paper prototypes are great for gathering user feedback, especially if you want to let the audience know that your design is still relatively pliable. While you may want to use a high-fidelity prototype to give potential investors a clear sense of your product vision, you may be able to use a low-fidelity version to convey the vision to team members. We have found that building high-fidelity prototypes of small moments of complex interaction can be incredibly valuable for communicating with remote developers about design intent and technical feasibility.

Interface Origami by Jaun Sanchez

The basic idea behind Interface Origami is to get out of the digital space and create a physical prototype. This allows you to play with your concepts in the real world, helping to avoid usability pitfalls by experiencing your concept in real world context. It's a great way to explore ideas without worrying about pixels.

Check out Juan Sanchez great post about the concepts behind Interface Origami.

Prototyping on the iPad with Interface 2

Interface 2 is a great looking prototyping tool that has just been released for the iPad. Interface 2 allows you to create clickable, pixel perfect working prototypes on your iOS device using all the standard iOS components.

Beyond it's excellent toolset Interface 2 allows you to export your prototype as Xcode project that can be shared with your iOS developer. Potentially speeding up your project development time.

Download Interface 2

Start and Maintain an Asset Library

As an illustration major in college, my professor implored his students to start a reference library of interesting photos, textures, colors and whatever we found interesting. The idea was to create a massive library of photo references that you could refer back to if you ever need to draw a sports car or something along those lines.

As a visual designer I've continued that concept. Except instead of collecting reference photo's I've been maintain an asset library of Photoshop files, Fireworks files, icons, vectors, textures, brushes, swatches, fonts and what ever else I find useful. The idea is to create an asset library of elements that will speed up your workflow and save time, allowing you to spend more time designing.

* Pixa - New app for maintaining your asset library. Public beta.

I recommend every visual designer add an asset library to their toolkit. If you want to learn more about building your asset library check out Erin Nolan post: "Build your asset library today"

Procreate for the iPad

The new version of Procreate iPad app launched last night. I've only been able to play with it for a few hours but if it's not the best drawing experience on the iPad it's right at the top. It features new sketch and inking brushes that look and feel amazing. The smudge tool has also been and will allow you to rock some of those Brad Rigney techniques.

Download Procreate

Need a Stylus for your iPad checkout: The best stylus for iPad by The Verge.

Icon Handbook by Jon Hicks

If you're interested in icon design, checkout "The Icon Handbook" by Jon Hicks. This book covers all the basic concepts of icon design and will give you an excellent icon design foundation. The "Icon Handbook" is well written and a easy read. Packed with little nuggets of useful information.

The Icon Handbook

Pixelapse Visual version control done right

We are starting to see the rise of new cloud-based web services directed at creative professionals and one that I'm most excited about is Pixelapse.

Pixelapse address a real problem that visual designers have, version control. Pixelapse uses a visual version control system that will display thumbnails of your work as you progress through your normal workflow.

Similar to Dropbox Pixelapse uses an application to creates a Pixelapse folder on your mac. Once the Pixelapse folder is created everything within that folder will be synced to the cloud. Within the Pixelapse folder you can start working on photoshop, fireworks or illustration files. As you work and save you files normally Pixelapse will constantly sync those files to the cloud automatically creating new versions allowing you to revert to previous versions at anytime.

The other nice thing about Pixelapse is that you can invite people to review your files and make comments as you go. Great for working with clients or in a team environment. Pixelapse is currently in private beta, checkout their site for more information.

Checkout Pixelapse

Portland/CreativeMornings - Aaron James Draplin

Finally, check out this great talk by James Draplin from draplin.com

"The DDC 50 Point Plan To Ruin/Save Your Career."

Checkout some sketch notes

HealthRally Gives You the Nudge You Need to Change Your Habits

Teresa Brazen — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:00:00 -0800

Most of us need an extra little boost (or nudge, or shove) to reach a goal. We can't do everything alone, and our friends and families can be powerful support systems. The strength of these relationships is at the core of why we love HealthRally. They offer an intriguing new way for friends and family to motivate each other to reach important goals with rewards. You can post a goal and ask friends to support you along the way. Or, friends can proactively post a reward to encourage you to stick to a goal. For instance, if you want to lose a few pounds, I could offer a shopping trip for a new outfit in your new size as motivation to keep trying to lose weight.

We are thrilled to be working with HealthRally through our partnership with Rock Health, offering design mentoring and training to Rock Health's start-ups. HealthRally is passionate, focused, and mission-driven, and 2012 is shaping up to be a great year for the company. Here are excerpts of a conversation with CEO & Co-founder Zack Lynch about what makes HealthRally so great.

What was the inspiration for creating HealthRally?

You, us and them. Anyone who has ever needed some extra motivation to help reach a goal. Whether it's losing weight, getting better grades, taking medication, or running a marathon, it's hard to stay motivated every day. So we created HealthRally as a way to bring your friends and family together to cheer you on, motivate you, and celebrate your success.

How will you know you've succeeded?

We are already succeeding. Our beta service launched in January and people are changing their lives, friends and family are motivating each other, and people are reaching goals with amazing rewards.

What do you do when you and your team need inspiration?

We go for a brisk walk up Potrero Hill and take in the view over San Francisco. We get energized thinking about all the innovation and passion occurring right in sight. Then, we hike over to Mr & Mrs Miscellaneous, a Dog Patch must, to reward ourselves with some very tasty ice cream.

What have you learned about human behavior through the process of creating HealthRally?

People really do want to see one another to succeed! They'll do anything for each other, from cooking healthy meals to going on walks, as well as putting money on the line to help motivate one another to reach goals.

How are you using design to motivate people?

User experience is everything. Each element, from sign up through motivating your friends, each process must convey a sense of ease, fun, trust, and accomplishment. For example, to improve our sign up process, we designed a way for people to build their rally even if they weren't signed in. This makes the initial product interaction easier and helps people play with our motivation service faster than if we required a lot of info right up front.

How is HealthRally different than other motivation and behaviorial change services out there?

Only HealthRally lets friends and family motivate each other with real money. We do this in a fun and social way to make sure that everyone is involved. We also designed a service called RallyCoach, which monitors the motivational momentum and nudges people to share experiences and motivate each other. We are seeing are amazing results!

Tell us about how you've been working with Cooper to evolve your product.

Cooper immediately seized on the opportunity to evolve the initial customer experience with a deeper sense of emotional relevance. We walked through the users mindsets and redesigned landing pages to highlight the sense of support and gratitude people can have from using our product.

What's your next big hurdle?

Taking advantage of the opportunities in front of us and new ones that continue to arise. Startups are built with great people, so attracting and retaining the best team will continue to be a major focus of our internal efforts.

What goals do you have for HealthRally this year?

Grow! We just signed a deal to be the "at home" version for a new reality weight loss TV series on NBC in Chicago called "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" where contestants get paid to lose weight. We want to go national with the show as it gets adopted in new markets, building out brand relationships to complement the rewards being given by friends and family.

What are you most proud of about HealthRally?

Making a service that helps people get excited about and energized to support one another, no matter what it takes.

If HealthRally won a (pretend) award, what would it be?

The Healthy Human Award given out to companies that inspire millions to get and stay healthy!

UX Bootcamp supercharges participants as they design products for the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus

The Editors — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:03:26 -0800

"Build a design that empowers ordinary people to do the extraordinary."
"Learn better ways to promote design concepts to partners."
"Challenge my process and how I work."
"Nurture my creative side."
"Learn techniques to better understand end-users."
"Build friendships and connections."
"Learn ways to collaborate with coworkers."
"Practice, practice, practice."

These are just a few of the reasons that 26 designers, engineers, and product managers joined forces in Columbus, Ohio last week for our inaugural UX Bootcamp competition. Their mission was to learn user experience design and use their new skills for social good. Over four intensely-packed days, they crammed their brains with Cooper's design methodology, broke into three self-selected teams, and put those learnings into practice to solve a real-world challenge for the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus. Each team pitched a concept for a mobile application that would empower and inspire members of ClubRED (a young professional's volunteer group within the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus). Cooper donated $1000 to the nonprofit in the name of the winning team, ClubRED Connect.

The winning team (ClubRED Connect), our friends from the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus, and one oversized check.

Inside UX Bootcamp

It's called bootcamp for a reason. We asked our students to perform within a tight timeline, and they took on our challenge like champs. We were mighty impressed when teams showed up an hour before the workshop one morning to get a head start on their designs (can you say, "extra credit?"). Although it was an intensive course, the teams kept great attitudes throughout. In fact, at one point, all the groups decided to set aside competition to work together to gather and share research data, knowing everyone's work would be better as a result. And they bravely stood up in front of a panel of tough, Dancing-with-the-Stars-esque judges to pitch their concepts at the end of the four days. We heard things like, "My brain muscle got quite a workout!", "You took me on a scary journey, but I came out smiling," and "The transformation was unanimous."

The judges scored teams in four categories: how well their concept addressed user and business needs; perceived impact; "wow" factor; and presentation skills. (Photo: Paul J Hart)

UX Bootcamp In Pictures

Get a taste of what it was like to be immersed in our crazy UX Bootcamp world by checking our our photo set on Flickr, or this nifty video montage:

The Final Pitches: What Teams Designed In Four Jam-Packed Days

Winning Team: ClubRED Connect

Concept:

ClubRED Connect gives volunteers the ability to turn existing social experiences into fundraising micro-events for the American Red Cross...with very little effort. Here's how it works: designate a location for friends to gather (Let's meet for happy hour!), take photos of interesting moments, share them with your friends via the app, and make a correlated donation to the nonprofit on the spot. Your friends are challenged to one-up your donation by sharing a "Red Cross Moment" of their own and making a contribution themselves. In this way, your small contribution is amplified by your friends, your friends' friends and more.

Presentation Deck: TeamClubREDConnect_Pitch.pdf

Snapshots of the design process:

Developing Scenarios (Photo: Paul J Hart)

Developing Framework (Photo: Paul J Hart)

Mock-up of concept (Photo: Paul J Hart)

Team: I+CBUS

Concept:

I+CBUS removes barriers to volunteerism by offering lightweight ways to get involved in your local Red Cross chapter. Participation can be as simple as pushing a button to donate, scheduling a time to donate blood, pass crisis information on to your social network, sign up to attend social events, or learn about other simple ways you can pitch in. The tool gives the American Red Cross an easy way to push needs, alerts and calls-to-action to the public, while giving volunteers a simple way to amplify their participation and have greater impact.

Snapshots of the design process:

Brainstorming (Photo: Paul J Hart)

Branding explorations

Concept illustrations (alert and user flow)

Team: Save the Day

Concept:

Recognizing that we are all motivated differently, the Save the Day app gives people the ability to help at times of crisis in a way that makes sense for their lifestyle, personality, and skills. Some people prefer to assist at the scene with blankets and food. Others feel most effective and valuable by rallying their friends to fundraise. Some are best at getting the word out to their networks. The Save the Day app maximizes participation by acknowledging that it takes all types of contributions to get through crisis, and lets individuals respond to events in their way.

Snapshots of the design process:

Brainstorming session (Photo: Paul J Hart)

Scenario exploration and app design

What's Next for UX Bootcamp

Creating a space for so many diverse, talented people to engage with one another, learn new skills, and apply them to a meaningful challenge was incredibly gratifying. As you can imagine, it just fueled our already passionate-desire to take the bootcamp to other places. We're solidifying the spot and nonprofit partner for the next UX Bootcamp adventure - stay tuned! (If you want to be notified directly of where we'll set up shop next, shoot us an email at CooperU@Cooper.com.

A special thanks to Kendra Shimmell for envisioning the UX Bootcamp and leading the curriculum development effort. We also want to acknowledge Constanza Miranda and Teresa Brazen for bringing their unique content ideas to the coursework. Kendra did a stellar job leading the workshop, with the support of co-instructors Teresa Brazen and Brian Stone. A special thanks to Brian for connecting us with our fantastic, engaged nonprofit partner. Speaking of which, we appreciate all the support the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus provided throughout, like having staff onsite throughout for questions and critique, and bringing in ClubRED volunteers for research interviews. And, last but not least, thanks to Sparkspace for providing a truly inspiring place to learn, teach, and play.

The sCoop: Week of April 2

Martina Maleike — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:00:00 -0800

Spring 2012 brings with it a new addition to the Cooper family. Meet beautiful baby Eloise Parker Myers! We are beaming with joy for the proud new parents, Nick and Caroline Myers.

Cooper Spring Break ended with a bang last Friday, with an inter-office challenge to a game (or six) of a spring-breakers classic, Flip Cup. We came with our game faces, but our guests were a force to be reckoned with. Apparently the accountants had some secret skills in this department. Now that we have a team strategy and some practice under our belts, our next opponent may not be so lucky...

Meanwhile, our first-ever UX Bootcamp: Midwest during March 26-29 has received excellent reviews from its attendees. Big congratulations to our Cooper U directors Kendra Shimmell and Teresa Brazen for pulling together such a successful workshop!

A small group of designers, engineers, and product managers joined forces in Columbus, Ohio for our very first UX Bootcamp workshop and competition. They had four days to learn Cooper U's design methods, break into teams, and design mobile application concepts that would empower and inspire members of ClubRED (a young professional's volunteer group within the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus). The final concepts were presented to the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus, and Cooper U donated $1000 to the nonprofit in the name of the winning team (ClubRED Connect).

UX Bootcamp was developed in response to the need for practical design education programs in areas (USA and beyond) where technology and design are on the rise. We'll be cultivating more of these kinds of partnerships, looking for interesting new problems to solve that could have a real impact on local communities. Ultimately, we'd like to expand this team-based approach to real-world challenges globally.

You can find some great tweets from the students who attended by looking up #UXBootcamp on Twitter.

This week Glen Davis, Peter Duyan, and Jim Dibble facilitated a lecture on visual design, talk-show format, at Rock Health. Glen educated a group of non-designers about the principles of visual design and how to more effectively communicate with a design team. The lecture was very intimate, conversational, and even inspired a bit of educative debate. The discussion ended with Visual Design for Non-Designers, an exercise that challenged participants to sharpen their visual vocabulary and translate attributes into style studies.

Speaking of debate, a hot topic this week in the design community is AIGA: Unjustified. This article draws to focus an important issue in every designer's mind: evaluating and justifying the success of graphic design. With the evolution of the design profession, AIGA refocuses its renowned annual design competitions around a common goal: justifying a project's success with the client, not only it's level of ingenuity, creativity, and innovation as a piece of graphic design. The article discusses an age-old dispute between elevating the quality and creativity of design itself and proving the value and profit of a design to a client. One can argue that there are appropriate formats for each type of criticism. Paula Scher, partner at Pentagram and highly-valued member of AIGA, provides a very apt piece of advice, "The original goals of AIGA were sound. Our goal is to raise the level and the expectation of the level of design in our society. Stay there."

On a lighter note, even international travel and hectic research schedules cannot keep our IxD ladies from blowing off some steam. From the streets of Detroit, Christina Worsing asks, "Have you done your 20 today?"

Who doesn't enjoy a quick game of Angry Birds on their commute? "Stupid" games have recently reached a high level of popularity and accessibility, and they have been an effective way to relieve the stress of the everyday grind for years. Check out this stupid game that allows you to shoot and kill banner ads! Alas, Tetris will forever be my "stupid game" of choice.

Futuristic Google Glass is an inspiring concept that aims to liberate users from staring at a screen, instead putting them back in the moment with a real-time augmented reality interface housed in a pair of eyeglasses. This idea could open up a multitude of new possibilities that could be a game-changer in the near future. Or, it could be the final nail in the coffin of carefree, serendipitous experience. We'll soon find out, anyway.

Happy Spring everyone, and have a great weekend!

Cooper

Designers on Wheels

IxD in Review: What is the Designer's Role?

From the Perspective of Cooper U Student & Intern, Nikki Knox

sCoop: Week of April 30

Life at Cooper

Sketch 2.0 Released

The Monoprice Graphics Tablet

Stay up-to-date with your favorite web service feeds

Dialoggs enters private beta

Interacting with media across multiple devices

iPad Keyboard Prototype

App pick of the week: Track 8

Elevating the brand and visual strategy with the experience workshop

Related links

Thinking Outside of the Box

The American Red Cross of Greater Columbus Shares Their Experience of UX Bootcamp

What was most surprising about this experience?

What did you learn about the design process as you watched the students go through UX Bootcamp?

What stood out to you about the mobile application concepts that the teams came up with?

Did the concepts the teams presented inspire any ideas?

What stood out to you about the final presentations and judging portion of the event?

Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience?

If you're curious to know more about that inaugural UX Bootcamp...

sCoop: Week of April 23

New Hires!

Upcoming CooperU Courses

Cooper UX Bootcamp: A Firsthand Account

New and Interesting

Stay inspired with Evernote

Why Evernote?

Search inside images

Dead simple content capture

Your inspiration library, everywhere

More Evernote quick tips

Go get some inspiration

What about you?

Design Collaboration & Communication: a student's perspective

Lesson 1: Meetings Don't Have to Suck

Lesson 2: Never Ask "So, What Do You Think?"

Lesson 3: Taking a Step Back Helps You Leap Forward

Lesson 4: "Empathy; It's Not Just for Users"

Cooper U's Next Design Communication & Collaboration Workshop: July 25-26

The sCoop: Week of April 16

New Instagram iPad app Iris

Dropmark

FoxTrot Pad Pack #1-3

The Rise of Interactive eBooks

The Smashing Book #3

Transforming UX training

Storytelling that inspires and delivers vision: Lessons from Google Glass

Helpful insights beyond the moment

The warmth of connection

Thinking a little bit ahead

Setting your hands free

Helping you remember the important things

Making location awareness magic

Improving connections

Delivering enchanting experiences

The sCoop: Week of April 9

Prototyping at Rock Health

Interface Origami by Jaun Sanchez

Prototyping on the iPad with Interface 2

Start and Maintain an Asset Library

Procreate for the iPad

Icon Handbook by Jon Hicks

Pixelapse Visual version control done right

Portland/CreativeMornings - Aaron James Draplin

HealthRally Gives You the Nudge You Need to Change Your Habits

What was the inspiration for creating HealthRally?

How will you know you've succeeded?

What do you do when you and your team need inspiration?

What have you learned about human behavior through the process of creating HealthRally?

How are you using design to motivate people?

How is HealthRally different than other motivation and behaviorial change services out there?

Tell us about how you've been working with Cooper to evolve your product.

What's your next big hurdle?

What goals do you have for HealthRally this year?

What are you most proud of about HealthRally?

If HealthRally won a (pretend) award, what would it be?