Ugg. Designer’s bios are always so predictable - they always seem to lead with a light-hearted intro and some profound statement about using design thinking to change the way we interact with technology or change the world.
I guess I do want to change the world with design. So let me give this a try.
I'm Brad Cooper, an Experience Designer from New Jersey United States with a passion for creating great products through research, testing, and by excessively scribbling on whiteboards, notebooks, sticky notes, and sometimes, unintentionally, walls — with the hopes that design, specifically mine, can change the world.
I appreciate that you’ve taken the time to look at this. I’m always looking to connect with new people and work on new projects, so let’s connect. — Brad
About this site
I hand-crafted this thing with HUGO, a static site generator. I may have given up on development but I can work my way around some code. If it’s a little bit wonky in places, that’s because I’m a little rusty.
If you didn’t notice, and I think is worth pointing out, my blog posts are each signed with a PGP key (to prove my identity), hashed as plain text along with that signature, and then that hash is written to the Ethereum Blockchain - proving that I wrote it and published it on a specific date - in case I have to ever prove ownership. I used to deploy this site to IPFS, making it available without the need for a server. Once I get this site to a better place, I’ll do it again.
I also take a lot of pride in making sure the site is accessible, performs well, follows best practices, and is search engine optimized. So if you’re curious, run it through Lighthouse.
I also made this site into a Progressive Web App (PWA) because I hated seeing those failures in Lighthouse. Maybe that’s a bit OCD, but design is in the details.