Design Strategist Portfolio

Ross Popoff-Walker design strategist annoyingdesign.org Portfolio of recent work

Conducted performances and taught computer music for 7 years

Followed childhood passion for technology to Carnegie Mellon

Helped make first Guitar Hero

Covered youth design and UX strategy for Forrester Research

Long-term goal: start a sustainability innovation design firm

Can run 14 miles without stopping

Cooks a killer steak

Facts about me

My Beliefs

Good design should not correlate with high cost to consumers

Advertising is dead, and marketing is now a service

When was the last time an ad did something good for you?

Agencies and design firms need to transform from production shops into strategic partners

Consumers have transformed into creators

Youth are uniquely digital, and illustrative of the future

What I do I am a design strategist a creative and analytical thinker that can craft experience elements (design) and justify designs through analyzing customer insight and business needs (strategy).

7 Reasons You Should Work With Me

Active in social media – I blog and Twitter

Combine left and right brain thinking

Passionate about design’s power to transform

Follow current trends of culture and media

Freelancing as an independent youth design consultant

Natural story teller – writing and public speaking skills

Nice guy, who likes helping people

Producer Researcher Building Virtual Words Designer Prototypes my past experience

I was a Researcher on the Customer Experience team. The Results Developed new IP for the company. Received internal company-wide award for “Best Marketing and Strategy Research Report, Q3 2007” Wrote top-read research. How I did it Conducted primary and secondary research. Tapped into consumer data and web analytics. Identified key elements of a business issue to create design frameworks. What I did Primary author for reports on customer experience strategy, web user experience and youth design. Delivered presentations, speeches, and experience evaluations directly to key clients.

Forrester offers thousands of reports to its clients. This was the 11 th most read report in Q1 2008.

The Gen Y Design Guide, uncovered a new area of research for Forrester: Young Consumer Design.

Designing experiences for Gen Y Immediacy Individualism Gen Y literacy Social interactivity

Provide ability to communicate with others

Offer tools for self-expression

Allow multiple levels of personalization

Allow for self-aggregation

Keep user instructions simple

Use sentence fragments and images, not text

Speak in Gen Y’s language

Expose immediate value

Refresh and update content constantly

Provide positive feedback

An example of a normal registration page...

A “Gen Y” registration page...

I was a designer and project lead. The Results World-wide press recognition, and numerous awards. 100,000+ downloads. A new start-up: ImpactGames, LLC. How I did it Small, lean team with multiple skills. Rapid prototyping with lo-fi materials. Lots of iterative development. What I did Led concept and pitch process. Designed the user interface and crafted design specs and storyboards. Led multiple usability tests and focus group sessions.

How I approach the design process

Identify your audience

Explore the existing problem space and solutions

Isolatate nuggests of goodness

Focus efforts on prototyping, not brainstorming

Test early, often, and learn from your mistakes

Identify multiple concepts, each diverging from a single theme, technology, or business need Evaluate each concept based on consumer desire, technology feasibility, and production constraints Iteratively develop proof-of-concepts Choose final product concept and enter production phase

Proof of concept and mockup designs

Prototype user interface designs

Screens of the shipped product from Impact Games, LLC

Key Lesson Learned from PeaceMaker The production timeline and budget should feed the creative, informing what you can realistically make of value within constraints.

I was an audio developer, game designer, and web producer. The Results 1.5 million units sold for GH1. Phase became an iPod download. How I did it Many low-fidelity prototypes, each focusing on illustrating a single, focused concept. Heavy emphasis on project management and budget. What I did Designed multiplayer experience and fine-tuned the learning curve for Guitar Hero 1. Developed concepts, prototypes, and design specs for new portable games. Managed the workflow of a seven-person Web development team.

Screen of the shipped version of Guitar Hero 1

An interface mockup for a music mini-game called “Rotate.” A combination Tetris and Amplitude-like beat matching game. The player must tap along to the music while switching around interface elements that correspond to specific colors. Player’s score Shapes correspond to controls on the PSP The Player rotates these four triangles to catch the right colored orbs as they move to the music

Phase is now a game for the iPod . (you can download it through iTunes)

Key Lesson Learned from Guitar Hero Appealing to a universal audience requires designing and then fine-tuning multiple learning curves and experiences into a single product.

I was a project producer and student. The Results Guiding Lights became permanent installation in non-profit children’s center. Learned collaborative skills and gained project management experience. How I did it Rapid development cycles and small 4-person teams. An emphasis on production rather than brainstorming. What I did Created five entertainment focused, virtual-world experiences using virtual reality and computer vision technology.

Guiding Lights is a 5-7 minute interactive audience participation experience.

An large audience collaboratively passes around lights to guide a virtual character through an interactive narrative.

A computer vision system tracks the lights, and Martha the moth follows seamlessly.

Thank you . blog: annoyingdesign .org/blog/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rosspw Twitter: twitter.com/rosspw email: [email_address]