Category: Brad Kaloupek

Agile Design for 18F Development Challenge

      

18F is an government contracting agency that acts more like a tech start-up than a traditional government agency.  They introduced a short timeline, design & development challenge around the OpenFDA API to vet future development partners. We used the challenge to demonstrate our ability to design and develop a viable software product with a small, experienced team in an extremely short timeframe. My role as design lead was to assess the OpenFDA and design the most impactful product we could create with a small, agile team in a short timeframe. Quick decisions When the development challenge was released, 18F gave no specification of “what” type of product they’d like […]

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User Experience: the barrier-to-entry for better healthcare software

        

As a design team, we have unknowingly become an expert in designing the user experience for healthcare software. Intended or not, many of our  projects focus on some aspect of the healthcare space. Checklist apps for service providers. Back-office software to eliminate wait times and help veterans. Commercial software for a major healthcare providers patient records and business. Myself and many of our development team came from a company that creates healthcare enrollment software. We understand 835 forms and ICD-10 codes. We understand how to move a user through a 14 page form and make them not hate it… too much. Over the dozen related projects, we’ve accumulated domain knowledge in a […]

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Always be creating value – Or my evolving role as design director in a start-up.

        

I have the best, and scariest, job in the world. When I’m doing my job right, everyone else is busy and I have nothing to do. And this isn’t to say there’s nothing to be done, I just haven’t discovered the next design project yet. My job is to insure everyone else is productive & happy, before I worry about myself. My job is to put my self out of a job. And then repeat that process over and over again. As we approach the holiday season, there’s a lot of change in our office. Like physically: we’re moving furniture to accommodate another 60 friends. And […]

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Re-thinking app design

     

Our design team was recently called to re-think the design of our mobile Stre.am app. It’s grown quickly – so before committing more code, it’s a great time step back and approach the design a little more critically . The app’s primary function is to capture and stream live video to an audience that can watch it on a desktop. It’s gaining rapid adoption in live sporting events & similar venues. We created two mobile app to serve  Apple IOS and Android, and here lies the problem. One universal App? Or two distinct platform designs? So here is our conundrum: Do we continue designing once, and […]

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Successful software starts with a Design Assessment

       

Lack of a cohesive product design is the quickest killer of a software project. If you have an idea, you need a design assessment before you ever write your first line of code. And here’s why. 0) What is a design assessment? A design assessment is a 3-4 week pre-development process that gives perspective to an entrepreneur’s idea prior to building software. This process focuses on understanding the goal/vision and working towards being able to show it through a prototype. Often an entire project is too detailed for this short of a timeframe, so we focus on key user-flows. Identify several key features users […]

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Using Keynote during your design process

     

Using keynote as an organizer for your thoughts during the design process: Create an outline or screen inventory towards the story I’d like to tell. As I’m working through the wireframes, I’ll record my thoughts as bullets into the keynote Formatting your thoughts – keep it simple, go high level then break out specific UI elements. Most importantly – always be ready to present your ideas, at any stage in the process. Formalizing designs in a presentation has it’s advantages: Keeps you focused Keeps the audience focused Is portable – can be emailed later w/out lengthy explanation Is progressive – […]

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Always be ready to present

   

I think part of being a good designer is to constantly look back and analyze your habits: where or from whom they came from. Think back to the art director who taught me to do one more iteration. Or when I learned to create one more design that makes you uncomfortable. Most often I trace many things I do well back to my first year of architecture studio and the design habits that I carried forward from there. Always be ready to present. One of the habit instilled early on was to always be ready to present. period. A teacher […]

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