Our Chief Technology Officer, Kilton Hopkins truly exemplifies our Weave value of serving and making a difference every day. Kilton has been not only taught members of the design community, he has also learned from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee about the intersections of government technology, and gave back by sharing his wisdom with design students. Kilton shared his recent experiences with the Weave team:

Mobile+Web DevCon
July 16
Chicago
Role: Presenter

photo credit: Mobile+Web DevCon

Several hundred designers, developers and engineers from different companies were in attendance at this year’s Mobile+Web DevCon to learn about new best practices, tools and ideas in their industry. Kilton taught a group of them how to make great iOS experiences. Great visual design goes beyond functionality and usability. Making great iOS experiences requires bringing people into a unified environment where everything feels effortless and enjoyable, resulting in a unique end result.

“I wanted to bring a design methodology into the conference and leave the audience with an experience where they could sit together and do design activities regardless of their role. It looked like the presentation resonated with some, sparked ideas in others – and even incited rebellion in one!”

Click here to view Kilton’s Mobile+Web DevCon materials!

Entrepreneurship-in-Residence Demo Day
July 30
San Francisco
Role: Attendee

photo credit: Mayor Ed Lee, Twitter

Kilton was invited to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s first Entrepreneurship-in-Residence Demo Day. The event was started to showcase how technology can improve the delivery of government services.

“It was an honor to be in attendance of this historic event. With only 16 weeks in their program, I saw the police force go from paper to mobile. There was also a terminal that used bluetooth low energy beacons to transform itself into a self-guided system for the visually impaired. The President of Lighthouse For the Blind tried it and was able to guide himself around the terminal and see all ATMs, bathrooms, restaurants, etc. with no assistance needed! I was thoroughly impressed, that was a powerful moment. I hope to see cities everywhere following this model.”

ADMCi #BrandChat
July 30
Virtual
Role: Speaker

Kilton spoke with a small group of American Design and Master-Craft initiative (ADMCi) students using Sococo, a virtual meeting platform, about his experiences as a designer. This is part of ADMCi practitioners series where professionals in the design field are invited to speak to students about their craft. The students enjoyed chatting with Kilton so much that they invited him to participate in future projects, stay tuned!

“I wanted to bring them an expansion to their design thinking. That expansion was the use of design themes to create more unified, holistic experiences. I showed them Weavescape and we did an exercise where we identified the design scheme of Spotify. We determined it is a listening party – users are strongly encouraged to share what they are listening to just like when people used to when they got together and listened to music in their friends’ basements.”

Thank you Kilton for your community service and outreach. Can’t wait to recap Kilton’s future adventures!