While at Cooper, I teamed up with a “Design Communicator”, operating under five guiding principles:

1. Design first; program second
   “The single most important process change we can make, is to design our interactive products completely before any programming begins.”

2. Separate responsibility for design from responsibility for programming
   Old way: programmers made significant decisions about how users interact with the software—often while in the middle of programming.

3. Hold designers responsible for product quality and user satisfaction
   Old way: management held programmers responsible for product quality—since they’re the ones who made it. The design team must have responsibility for everything that comes in contact with the user. This includes all hardware as well as software.

4. Define one specific user for your product; then invent a persona—give that user a name and an environment and derive his or her goals
   Old way: managers and programmers talked about “the end user” without being specific—allowing the term “user” to stretch to fit the situation. We’d would print out copies of the cast of characters and distribute it at meetings. In the case of SONY, trying to arrive roughly ten personas that reflect a broad cross section of people and background AND physical traits—”Bernie’s a plumber, hates flying, has huge fingers from the work he does so if we design a button the target better be big enough for his chunky digit."

5. Work in teams of two: designer and design communicator
   Old ways: one programmer, or one interaction designer, or one interaction designer and one visual designer.

I touched a variety of projects as Cooper Designer.
Two that demanded most of my time:

• SONY in-flight entertainment system — P@SSPORT

• HP printable whiteboard (Designed under Non-disclosure)