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]

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Design Strategist Portfolio

by Ross Popoff-Walker on Aug 21, 2008

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