1. I engage end-users in my design process DESIGN PRINCIPLE
1. Provide Consistent Models
25
because without them our software and products & Methods of Navigation
are irrelevant. Paternalism is self-defeating.
XBOX IDEO
XBOX & IDEO Con dential April 2008
24
Design Principles
These Design Principles help us decide how to design the channel experience.
1. Provide Consistent 2. Support Shallow and 3. Meet User Expectations
and Appropriate Models Broad Exploration of Premium Performance
of Navigation
4. Aid Quick 5. Provide Engaging Previews 6. Surface the Social Layer
Decision Making
USER PROPOSITION
“I intuitively know what to
7. Speak in 8. Celebrate the Content 9. Support Customization
press without having to think
Familiar Language
or read excessive labels.”
XBOX & IDEO Con dential April 3rd 2008
DESIGN PRINCIPLE 40
97 8. Celebrate the Content
Our Approach
Push Pull X-Factor
USER PROPOSITION
“I love seeing all the choices without the clutter of
navigation options. I love seeing what the game is
really like before waiting for the demo to download. ”
XBOX & IDEO Con dential April 3rd 2008
I don’t know what I 80
Navigation want, so make I know what want, so This is so cool! I can’t
do this on my PC.
Choosing one media form over another
give me control.
entertainment. When asked what people would do if 15, 30 or 60 min of free time, most
do a delight. people don’t consider turning on their console unless they have at least 30 min of time.
Refreshed XBOX Live interface Consoles represent a ‘barrier’ to start-up compared to other media options.
HMW maximize the feeling of a fast start-up and ‘arrival’?
XBOX Live User Experience >
TV
IDEO San Francisco I don’t have to I have to make Experiencing ESPN
Team Lead - 3 Person Team Content work to enjoy it. decisions to push Sunday football was Music
IM, Text, Email
This movie goes on this game forward. different and better on
without me. Social Site
User Research, Strategy, & Design XBOX.
Mobile Game
2008 - 6 Weeks Console Game
Movie
I led a small team at IDEO to look at
the current XBOX Live offering and Socializing and digital media
Datenight for non-gamer
Kentaro, 27, and his girlfriend
77
Barriers to reaching new audiences
81
Choosing one media form over another
79
user experience. XBOX Live is not includes sitting together on the
Michaela and her family enjoy any and all media they can do together - particularly TV
shows like American Idol, watching “I only play Playstation2
laptop computers while which involve voting. They host impromptu ‘bets’ between
a game; it’s the menu system used family members on who the winner is going to be. when I feel like turning
everything on.”
Gerard, 12
HMW integrate social options that align with behaviors families already do.
to navigate the consoles features, HMW support multitasking
What if we overlay social experiences onto passive media (e.g. judging a performance)?
entertainment? We got this sense from
many - it takes time to
purchase content and communicated get into an experience on
the console. Other media
with friends. There was several options that more quickly
deliver (music, TV) often
trump the choice to start
rounds of concept generation and up the console. People
want to simply turn
something on and be
user testing. XBOX used our input entertained.
to help guide them during the next
What if Live behaved more
Meghan regularly plays Xbox games with her gamer boyfriend, Warren. He has to like a TV - starting off on
do all the set-up for their Rockband gaming sessions and then she steps into play. the channel last viewed
iteration of the XBOX Live experience.
She probably could to it, but it’s too much work with too many steps. rather than the home page?
HMW make set-up more accessible to secondary players?
Many of design principles were
implemented to success and popular Presentation to XBOX of user research, design principles and strategy.
praise from game critics.
16 Portfolio Brian Hoffer 17

2. My expertise in software design and development is
directly applicable to the new technology that plays
an increasingly crucial role in architecture.
Computer Projector Camera
Projected
Person Figure
Interactive Video Installation >
University of Design Basel
Individual Project
Video, Design & Programming
2004 - 3 Weeks
The figure, projected onto a column,
walks forwards or backwards in
response to people’s movements.
The figure’s image shifts apart into
colored layers depending on the
color of your clothes. When motion
is no longer detected the RGB
figures converge on their original
position and wait for the next
student to pass by. The MAX MSP Jitter Patch controlling the video projection.
18 Portfolio Brian Hoffer 19

3. I teach qualitative design research methods to COMFORT - DESIGN CONCEPT
SKELETON CART
give my students context for design decisions beyond
their preferences, intuition and life experience. OBSERVATION
Street carts are
heavy and non-flex-
ible.
INSIGHT
Many people dont
use carts because of
the space and the
labor they require.
HOW MIGHT WE
Make it a cart thats
easy to move and
set up?
CONCEPT
We designed a
light, easy to set up
cart that can offer
enough space yet be
easy to transport.
Innovation II Workshop - 2009 - Guest Lecturer, Brian Hoffer - Centro de Estudios Superiores de Diseño de Monterrey, S.C. 7
OPPORTUNITY AREA
COMFORT
INSIGHT INSIGHT INSIGHT
Innovation Workshop If there were more places The stands and carts are People like the street COMFORT - DESIGN CONCEPT
MOBILE RESTAURANT
to sit, street food would difficult to move and set food but miss the comfort
Street Carts Culture > be more appealling. up, so they tend to look that they can find in a
Centro de Estudios Superiores
OBSERVATION
cheap and messy. restaurant.
Street Carts often ort
of a restaurant.
de Diseño de Monterrey. (CEDIM) HOW MIGHT WE INSIGHT
This makes them lose
Provide more comfortable HOW MIGHT WE
customers.
Monterrey, Mexico HOW MIGHT WE HOW MIGHT WE
18 Students- 2 Weeks, 4 hrs/day seating but easy to move We could provide to the How can we give people
Make a street cart
feel like a restaurant?
and store for the owner? owner a new alternative the comfort of a restau- CONCEPT
Curriculum & Teaching We could recycle a
to set up and move easi- rant on the street?
bus into a two story
food cart. The second
2009 - 2 Weeks er?
floor would provide
dedicated seating.
I’ve taught a series of design Innovation II Workshop - 2009 - Guest Lecturer, Brian Hoffer - Centro de Estudios Superiores de Diseño de Monterrey, S.C. 3
research workshops to first year
Innovation II Workshop - 2009 - Guest Lecturer, Brian Hoffer - Centro de Estudios Superiores de Diseño de Monterrey, S.C. 9
undergraduate students. My COMFORT - DESIGN CONCEPT
TRANSFORMER CART
workshops emphasize how to
connect research insights from OBSERVATION
Food carts dont have
the real world observations with comfortable seats or
dont have seats at all.
targeted design concepts that fulfill INSIGHT
Food carts dont have
seats because the
identified needs. The subject of my
owners have no time
to take chairs out or
they have no space for
first workshop was Mexican street
them.
HOW MIGHT WE
Make seating more con-
cars. The challenge for the students venient or easy to set
up for food vendors?
was to identify worthy problems and CONCEPT
We propose a new solu-
tion system of chairs
create innovative solutions. All integrated inside the
food truck.
work was done in teams. Innovation II Workshop - 2009 - Guest Lecturer, Brian Hoffer - Centro de Estudios Superiores de Diseño de Monterrey, S.C. 5
Class pictures from my workshops at CEDIM in Monterrey MX, 2009 & 2010. A mexican street cart. My student’s presentations. The School in Monterrey Mexico. Classroom collaboration.
22 Portfolio Brian Hoffer 23