Happy Cog: News

Happy Cog-designed Kongregate: one of Time magazine’s top 50 for 2010.

happycog — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:52:21 +0000

Way back in 2006, we worked with social gaming company Kongregate, helping them devise a plan for world domination. We sat in an apartment in San Francisco with Kongregate’s founders and white-boarded blue sky ideas, functionality, and proposed interactions. We even tossed around ideas for what the site would be called. After that, we set out to architect and design the site, which ultimately launched in October of 2006. You can read about our work together in our case study.

Since then, Kongregate has become wildly successful, as evidenced by the recent sale to GameStop.

The hits keep on coming. Kongregate was just recognized in Time Magazine’s annual “50 Best Websites” list. It once again proves that an innovative idea, coupled with thoughtful design and strategic implementation can improve with age.

Happy Cog 2011 SXSW Panel Ideas

happycog — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:08:37 +0000

Voting is underway for next year’s SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, TX. Happy Cog professionals are bringing their expertise and insight resulting in eighteen panel ideas that are sure to delight and inform. Here’s a list of all of the panels our folks are participating in. Follow the links to vote for your favorites, which increases the likelihood you’ll see them on the schedule in March. Voting ends 11:59 CDT on Friday, August 27.

Project Management

Project Management for Humans (No Robots Allowed)

Panelists:

Brett Harned — Happy Cog Senior Project Manager
Dave DeRuchie — Happy Cog Project Management Director
Sam Barnes
Pamela Villcorta
Rob Borley

Your Meetings Suck and It’s Your Fault

Presenter: Kevin Hoffman — Happy Cog User Experience Director

User Experience

Critical Thinking for UX Designers (Or Anyone, Really)

Dual Presenters:

Russ Unger — Happy Cog User Experience Director
Stephen Anderson

Guerrilla Research Methods — Live!

Dual Presenters:

Todd Zaki Warfel
Russ Unger — Happy Cog User Experience Director

Inside-Out UX: Clients, Expectations, Politics, Personalities

Dual Presenters:

Whitney Hess — Happy Cog Senior Experience Designer
Tom Daly

Design

Can Design Save Philadelphia? Happy Cog vs Cliches

Presenter: Christopher Cashdollar — Happy Cog Creative Director

My Title Is Web Designer, Now What?

Panelists:

Christopher Cashdollar — Happy Cog Creative Director
Samantha Warren
Jay Fanelli
Val Head

Nontent: Is Smashing Magazine Helping or Hurting Design

Panelists:

Kevin Sharon — Happy Cog Senior Designer
Mathew Smith
Aex Giron

Development

Developers: Saving the Web From Your Dick Move

Panelists:

Jenn Lukas — Happy Cog Interactive Development Director
Mark Huot — Happy Cog Technology & Development Director
Kenny Meyers
Noah Stokes
Paul Irish

Digital Bookmaking for Designers & Developers

Panelists:

Brian Warren — Happy Cog Senior Designer/Developer
Scott Boms
Grant Huchinson

Personal Development

Jeffrey Zeldman’s Amazing Panel

Presenter: Jeffrey Zeldman — Happy Cog Founder & Executive Creative Director

Company Culture: It’s All Your Fault

Presenter: Greg Hoy — Happy Cog President

Panel Title: [ INSERT PANEL TITLE HERE ]

Dual Presenters:

Greg Storey — Happy Cog President
Greg Hoy — Happy Cog President

GeekFit: How to Embrace Technology and Healthy Lifestyles

Presenter: Robert Jolly — Happy Cog Client Services Director

Breaking Taboos: Pros Get Real About Money Matters

Panelists:

Mark Hemeon
Daniel Burka
Joe Stump
Whitney Hess — Happy Cog Senior Experience Designer

Maintaining Your Humility While Enjoying Your Success

Presenter: Whitney Hess — Happy Cog Senior Experience Designer

Bridging The Generation Gap: Or Is There One?

Panelists:

Joey Pfeifer — Happy Cog Developer/Designer
Yesenia Perez-Cruz — Happy Cog Designer
Khoi Vinh
Luke Dorny

Making Memories Capturing Your Awkward Social Media Years

Panelists:

Kenny Meyers
Luke Dorney
Greg Storey — Happy Cog President

iPhone app development and the joy of help copy

happycog — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:55:34 +0000

In Issue No. 312 of A List Apart for people who make websites, Twitterific’s Craig Hockenberry tells what iPhone app developers need to know in Apps vs. the Web, and Lyle Mullican shows how to convert frustrated users into your most loyal customers by strategizing, writing, and maintaining better help copy in Good Help is Hard to Find.

Happy Cog meets .net

happycog — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:26:59 +0000

The leading publication of web design, .net magazine, has a new issue out today, guest-edited by Happy Cog founder and executive creative director Jeffrey Zeldman. Jeffrey uses the guest pulpit to argue that 2010 brings us to a genuine turning point in web design: the beginning of a mature web where content comes first, and where web standards mean never having to say you’re sorry to any browser, platform, or device. Read more on Jeffrey’s website.

Say No to Bad Ideas

happycog — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:10:39 +0000

You can’t create what clients need when you’re too busy saying yes to everything they want. As a user experience designer, it’s your job to say no to bad ideas and pointless practices. But getting to no is never easy. In No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas, Happy Cog senior experience designer Whitney Hess shares techniques to turn vocal negatives into positive experiences for you, your client, and most importantly, the end-user. (A List Apart Issue No. 311.)

Kickass Kickoff Meetings

happycog — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:00:23 +0000

Too many kickoff meetings squander the busiest, most expensive people’s time reiterating what everyone already knows. If every meeting is an opportunity, why waste your first one? In Kickass Kickoff Meetings (Issue No. 311, A List Apart for people who make websites) Happy Cog’s Kevin M. Hoffman tells how to turn a room of mutually suspicious turf battlers into an energetic team with shared ownership of the end-product and the kind of bond that can sustain the group through the challenges ahead.

Happy Cog Helps Refresh Zappos.com

happycog — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:55:15 +0000

Back in September of 2009, Happy Cog was invited to begin a project help “reskin” Zappos.com. We have always been big fans (not to mention loyal customers) of Zappos.com, so the opportunity was one we were thrilled to be a part of.

As we voyaged down our path together, we realized that our project was evolving into something much more than a “reskin”. We learned that the work we needed to do had to enable the Zappos.com experience to evolve without design elements appearing “duct taped” together. We helped implement a design system of flexible components and modules that were unified by consistent, appropriate typography. We also helped bring the wonderful Zappos.com culture and voice closer to the surface.

You may not have immediately noticed the Zappos.com refresh, partially because it is being rolled out in stages. But it’s certainly feeling different these days.

For all of the details regarding our work together, check out our case study.

The Band Just Keeps Getting Bigger and Better

happycog — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:46:01 +0000

We are excited to announce the addition of Russ Unger, Rawle Anders, and Joey Pfeifer to the Happy Cog team based in San Francisco.

Russ just joined the team to become a Director of User Experience, and we are happy to add his expertise and talent to help complete the West coast team. He brings over a decade of experience working with Fortune 500 brands and is a leader in the UX community. You might remember Russ from such SXSW competitions as Happy Cog’aoke in 2008–who can forget his cat-like rendition of some Hootie & The Blowfish?

Rawle has been working with us for some time as our Lead Project Manager. He is no stranger to Happy Cog, having played a major role in the creation of the Visit Philly website, working on the client side. With a long history of site development and management experience, Rawle has been a perfect addition to the West coast team.

Joey has been with us as a freelancer designer since November 2009. Armed with heaps of natural talent, he makes a good complement to the design team. Joey is equally skilled as a coder, and has created fantastic work for both web and mobile experiences. Catch Joey on his personal blog, Unrequired Reading.

We’re excited to have these professionals onboard, and look forward to working with them in the future.

Big Web Show Roundup

happycog — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:59:05 +0000

The Big Web Show is a weekly video podcast on Everything Web That Matters, co-hosted by 5×5 network founder Dan Benjamin and Happy Cog founder and executive creative director Jeffrey Zeldman. Here’s a round-up of recent shows:

In Episode 2: HTML5, Dan and Jeffrey talk with Jeremy Keith, designer, writer, featured An Event Apart speaker, and author of HTML5 for Web Designers. They discuss the goals and inspiration behind the book, as well as what HTML5 means for both web creators and those who consume the web, covering topics that range from structure to accessibility and implementation.

Melissa Pierce’s new film, “Life in Perpetual Beta,” asks the question, “is the planned life worth living?” and sketches an answer via interviews with the likes of Baratunde Thuston, Irina Slutsky, and Twitter’s Biz Stone. In Episode 3: Re-invent Yourself, Dan and Jeffrey interview Melissa about the unplanned life, Facebook privacy, and using the internet to re-invent yourself.

In Episode 4: Content Strategy, Dan and Jeffrey get down to cases with Kristina Halvorson, CEO, Brain Traffic and author, Content Strategy for the Web (New Riders, 2010), and Erin Kissane, content strategist with Happy Cog, and author of Incisive.nu.

In Episode 5: Web Education, Dan and Jeffrey talk with special guest Liz Danzico, author of Bobulate, and chairperson of the MFA in Interaction Design program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. They discuss web and interaction design education, user experience design, how to structure a program and teach a class, acquiring and editing content, and much more.

In Episode 6: Mobile First, Dan and Jeffrey chat with leading interaction designer Luke Wroblewski about designing for the mobile space, and learn why the mobile experience for a web application or site should be designed before the PC version.

In Episode 7: Usability Testing, Dan and Jeffrey talk with larger-than-life user experience design guru Jared Spool about usability testing in the real world. Jared is the founder of User Interface Engineering, the largest usability research organization of its kind in the world. He’s been working in the field of usability and design since 1978, before the term “usability” was ever associated with computers.

And in Episode 8: User Experience Design, Dan and Jeffrey talk with Happy Cog’s own Whitney Hess about social networking, getting clients, and user experience design—from research to wireframes to testing and beyond.

AEA Boston Sells Out

happycog — Sat, 15 May 2010 20:16:15 +0000

Like An Event Apart Seattle before it, An Event Apart Boston has sold out. On May 24-25, 500 highly advanced web designers and developers will spend two days studying best practices and new developments in web design with Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, and special guests including Nicole Sullivan, Dan Cederholm, Luke Wroblewski, Aarron Walter, Jared Spool, Greg Rewis, Jeremy Keith, Kristina Halvorson, Andy Clarke, Ethan Marcotte, and Jeffrey Veen.

If you can’t be with us in Boston, there are three shows still to come this year: An Event Apart Minneapolis on July 26–27; An Event Apart Washington, DC (with optional A Day Apart on CSS3 and HTML5) on Sept. 16–18; and An Event Apart San Diego on Nov. 1–2. Tickets are first-come, first-served, and are going fast. Don’t miss this year’s An Event Apart for people who make websites.