brittany cheng

Overview

Berkeley Innovation is an undergraduate, interdisciplinary human-centered design club. During the semester, students in BI work in teams of 3-5 on semester-long design projects, all with the framework of human-centered design as a problem-solving process. Past projects have included interface design, product design, graphic design, and even packaging design. As co-president, I worked with an officer core to manage 7-8 student projects each semester, checking in weekly and guiding teams along the design process. I also provided design resources and led workshops for the 50+ BI members.

Developing BI

Over the years, my co-president Alex Mandel and I have developed BI into a more sustainable and organized club, through the following structural and organizational changes:

• Creation of clearly defined officer positions with weekly officer meetings: Marketing Chair, Partnership Chair, Social Chair, Education Chair, Project Leader/Scrum Master, Treasurer, Webmaster, Social Media/Historian.
• Revamped marketing and outreach process and application process for membership.
• New project-selection process: Project teams are created during a planning meeting in the beginning of the semester where we consider students' skills and interests, design experience, and time commitment.
• Reaching out to companies and other student organizations for projects and mentors. Organizations we have worked with in the past include Vertigo Design, Microsoft Research, Accenture, and Frog Design.
• Creation of a timeline for BI projects, structured around the human-centered design process, with 3-week check-ins at each stage of the process: user research, concept generation, prototyping, testing.
• Emphasis of project documentation through project blogs on tumblr and behance portfolio pieces (we are still working on this!)

Sample BI Projects

ChronoZoom Home Page Redesign

ADA Table Design

What I've Learned

• DESIGN! BI was my introduction to the world of human-centered user interface design. Here is my first project from Spring 2011: G-SyNC UI Design
• Organizational leadership skills
• Project management
• Team budgeting and time management